The Oval, 2016. Younis Khan is walking down the pitch – not to smash a spinner for six, he has just done that to bring up his double century, so he is actually walking.
Mohammad Amir embraces him mid-pitch.
This is not unusual. What is unusual is what is in the background.
People.
Television has caught that point of embrace between Younis and his batting partner. Many times. Too many of those many times, there has been no one in the background. People who would watch him, unable to watch him because of the violence of others.
Test cricket is not in a golden era of ground attendance. It would be wrong to assume that there would have been many people watching Tests in Pakistan if playing in Pakistan was as normal as playing Tests in Sri Lanka. When Khan played the key role in an excellent fourth innings chase at Pallekele in 2015, there were not many people at the ground.
Outside of Pakistan, England is actually a decent home away from home for Pakistan. There is a reasonable expatriate population there, and Pakistan have hosted home Tests in England.
But the last time before 2016 Pakistan played England in England, Younis was not there, and that 2010 tour is now famous for all the wrong reasons.
Misbah’s team became known as the opposite of that team. In England, there were finally enough people to give the applause a player like Younis deserves on his best days.
Initially, it seemed as though Khan had had to wait too long. Jumping from failure to failure, he made no score of note in the first three Tests. Having squandered the early lead in the series, Pakistan had to win at the Oval to save the series.
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England had a decent score. No young women were forced to scream “Attica” as a result of it, but in order to avoid a challenging fourth innings, Pakistan needed to go big in the first innings. When Khan came out, it was a distinct possibility, but it would require the familiar Younis Khan to re-emerge to put the cherry on top of a wonderful series.
He did more than that. It was the innings of the series. That was why, when a full house was present to see him bring up his double century, they all rose to their feet as Younis hugged Amir. The television camera could not have avoided clapping people, even if it wanted to, if they wanted to focus their attention anywhere that involved people.
Younis Khan has decided to retire. His final series will be in the West Indies. There will be no full house present when he and Misbah-ul-Haq walk off the ground, having played their final Test, but all true lovers of the game will be on their feet and clapping, as surely as that Oval crowd was last year.
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