Pakistan cricketer Younis Khan hospitalised

Ace Pakistan Test cricketer, Younis Khan, was hospitalised today in Karachi after he caught a fever, and consequently, he couldn’t attend the ceremony wherein the Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq was handed over the Test mace by the ICC Chief Executive Officer, David Richardson. Pakistan had become the No. 1 ranked side in Test cricket after levelling the Test series against England 2-2 at the Oval last month.

The doctors examining the cricketer divulged that Younis would be put under examination for the next 24 to 48 hours before they take a call on his release and the state of his health.

The 38-year-old struck a majestic double hundred in the last Test of the four-match series, during Pakistan’s recently-concluded tour of the United Kingdom, that helped his team make a comeback from being 1-2 down in the series, to eventually share the honours.

Having retired from the shorter formats, Younis has become one of the lynchpins of the Pakistani Test setup, and he has amassed 9456 runs in 108 Tests at an average of 53.72. Earlier in the day, Pakistan became the fifth country to receive the Test Championship mace, that is awarded to the team that tops the ICC Test Rankings, for the first time since the inception of the rankings system in 2003.

The most prolific run-scorer for Pakistan in Test cricket, Younis, is closing in on the 10000-run mark in the longest format of the game, and if he does get there, he’ll become the first Pakistani to do so. The veteran had surpassed Javed Miandad’s run-tally of 8832 runs in October 2015 to become the country’s top run-getter in Tests.