Mohammad Yousuf (formerly Yousuf Youhana) is a retired Pakistani cricketer who was born in Lahore on August 27, 1974. He was mainly a middle-order batsman who batted right-handed.
He is mostly a batting player who has participated in all aspects of the game. Yousuf was one of the few Christians to have ever represented Pakistan in cricket. In 2005, however, he converted to Islam.
Yousuf set a world record in 2006 by scoring 1,788 runs in a year in tests with an average of almost 100 runs.
Background
He was a member of Forman Christian College in Lahore during his college years, but abruptly left in early 1994. In the 1990s, he appeared in a local match and gained publicity for his shots. He was called again by a local club in need of players, which turned out to be fruitful for him. This lead to a season of cricket in the Bradford Cricket League.
Debut
His Test debut was in Durban against South Africa, and his ODI debut was in Harare against Zimbabwe.
Rise to Glory
In December 2005, he scored 223 runs against England in Lahore, winning him the man of the match trophy. He scored 202 runs and 48 in the first Test against England in July 2006, earning him the man of the match award once more. In the third Test match at Headingley, he scored 192 runs, and in the fourth Test match at The Oval, he scored 128 runs.
Yousuf won the ICC’Test Cricketer of the Year’ award in 2007. In just 10 innings, he scored 944 runs at a 94.40 average, including seven centuries and two fifties.
After losing the first Test against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on August 1, 2010, Pakistan called Yousuf back into the squad for the remainder of the series, effectively ending his retirement.
In the third Test against England, Yousuf scored 56 points.
On the same tour of England, he also played Twenty20.
Yousuf was picked to play for Pakistan in all three formats against South Africa in October 2010.
Yousuf’s Record in Numbers
He has more than 9,000 ODI runs at over 40 (2nd highest among Pakistani batsmen) and over 7,000 Test runs at over 50 (2nd highest among Pakistani batsmen), including 24 Test centuries.
In the 2002–2003 season, he set the record for most runs scored without being bowled in an ODI match, scoring 405 runs against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.
In the ODI format, he was the highest scorer in the world in 2002 and 2003.
In the Boxing Day Test against Australia in 2004, he scored 111 runs.
Yousuf hit 1788 runs at a 99.33 average in 2006, breaking two of Viv Richards’ world records. He smashed Viv Richards’ record of being the top scorer in Test matches in a single calendar year in the third innings of the final Test between Pakistan and the West Indies.
He also set a new record for most runs scored by a Pakistani batsman in a three-match series. Yousuf also holds the world record for the most centuries in a calendar year, with nine in 2006.