BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA:
Out of form senior Pakistan batsman Younis Khan denied on Wednesday tweeting a plan to retire from one-day internationals after the ongoing World Cup, saying he was working hard to come good for his team.
A tweet from a supposedly official Younis account on Tuesday said he was going to retire from white-ball cricket after the World Cup and continue to play Tests.
However, Younis insisted he did not have a Twitter account of his own.
“I have no Twitter account and it’s (the story about his retirement) fake,” Younis told a foreign news agency on Wednesday.
“I am working hard to come good in batting and have not decided anything like that.”
Younis has been a subject of severe criticism from former Pakistan players after scores of six and nought in Pakistan’s defeats in their first two matches of the World Cup.
He was asked to open the innings in Pakistan’s first match against arch-rivals India in Adelaide, a promotion which backfired.
Since arriving on the New Zealand tour last month, the 37-year-old has managed just 78 runs in eight matches, including four warm-up games and two one-day internationals prior to the World Cup.
Pakistan next play Zimbabwe in a Pool B fixture in Brisbane on March 1, a game they must win to harbour realistic hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Former Pakistan captain turned commentator Ramiz Raja has urged Younis to quit one-day internationals.
“I beg of Younis. Thank you for your services to Pakistan cricket but please leave this ODI side now,” Raja told a Pakistan television channel on Tuesday.
“I think Younis should tell the management he should be rested.”
Javed Miandad, another former Pakistan captain, lashed out at team management for asking a struggling Younis to open.
“What’s the rocket science of promoting Younis Khan as an opener?,” Miandad wrote in his column for the International Cricket Council website.
“If you are not an opener you tend to struggle against the new ball and if you are not in form, it only compounds your problems,” said Miandad, also a former Pakistan coach.
Younis has scored 7,203 runs in 263 one-day internationals and his selection in the 15-man squad only came after he scored a century during the 3-2 one-day series defeat by New Zealand in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year.
Prior to that series, he was dropped from the one-day side which lost to Australia, also in the UAE.
He scored 468 runs, including three hundreds and a best of 213, in the 2-0 win over Australia in the Tests which led the selectors to recall him for the New Zealand series in the UAE.
