How long has Younis Khan been playing Test cricket for Pakistan? The first Australian to bowl at him was Jason Gillespie, and the second was Glenn McGrath. The first to get him out was Brett Lee, and the second was Shane Warne. The first Australian batsman he caught was Ricky Ponting (the bowler was Waqar Younis), and the second was Steve Waugh. In those great names, we see a historical honour roll; Younis sees opponents.
Younis' cricket contemporaries have passed into commentary, coaching and charity work. He has played internationals against not just the current Australian team but many of the support staff. The entire Test careers of Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers and Simon Katich came and went within the span of Younis's. He has played most of the Channel Nine box, not Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell, though records may yet show that he played against them too.
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Wickets continue to tumble for Pakistan
A Younis Khan century was the only highlight for Pakistan on a rain affected day three, the visitors in danger of following on as Australia took a further six wickets.
Until Thursday, Younis' individual career had one unticked box. He had scored centuries in every Test-playing country, including one, his own, that is not hosting Tests any more. His first, a hundred on debut in Rawalpindi, was back in the twentieth century. As he travelled the world over the next 17 years, Younis scored 33 hundreds, including such a pummelling of Australia in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in 2014 that his 468 runs seemed to be one extended innings. Yet he had never completed the full set by scoring a Test hundred in Australia.
His appearances here had been scant, and he constructed this majestic career far from Australian eyes. He came as a 27-year-old in 2004-05, when his bowling nemeses included future Cricket Australia board member Michael Kasprowicz and future Sydney Cricket Ground Trustee Stuart MacGill. He did not tour in 2009-10, after holding, relinquishing and then refusing the Pakistani captaincy. Like Sun Tzu, he was at the river long enough to watch the bodies of his enemies float by.
![Veteran runs: Younis Khan bats during his century on day three of the third Test.](/web/20170105210406im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/m/o/l/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtmohu.png/1483607497567.jpg)
He was at it again on Thursday, seeing them come, seeing them go. This time it was a succession of batting partners as Pakistan again subsided. Younis seemed oblivious. His internal focus has been his great strength as a batsman and his weakness as a leader, but here his batting was leadership.
It wasn't pretty, but it seldom has been. Slim, with coat-hanger shoulders, he stood in wait for the bowlers, descending into a prehensile crouch as they approached. His batting has lacked fluency on this tour, and it was far from fluent here, but he did what he does best: he survived. He played and missed, he lashed with wild hands at loose balls, and then he would mistime a drive into a gap and get off the strike. Another run closer to 10,000.
If he lacked flow, nor did he look especially troubled. He did connect with some lavish strokes through cover, but this was more about getting the job done than pleasing aesthetic standards.
When he reached his 34th Test century and at last had one in Australia, he showed how much it meant to him, raising his bat in his characteristic face-up salute. Batsmen of this stature say that every hundred is special, and after all the struggle, you could see why. Perhaps every one is more special than the last, because it might be the last.
In a game that had been dominated by the young and the young at heart, Younis provided a nice coda. Australia lost one player to diarrhoea and another to a blow to the head. The masseur was kitting up. Younis lost six partners to persistent Australian bowling and some sharp catching. The game lost four hours to rain. But time itself was not lost, and in Younis's long vigil some of it was regained, the life put back into living history.