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Pakistan’s prolific batsman Mohammad Yousuf has broken plenty of Test cricket batting records during year 2006, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

He has made more hundreds - nine - and scored more runs - 1788 ñ in a calendar year than any other player in the history of the game.

The stylish right-hander also broke Pakistan’s mark for most runs in a three-Test series - 665, against the West Indies, smashing Zaheer Abbas’s previous mark of 583 runs, against India in 1978/79.

And thanks to performances like that, Yousuf finds himself in truly elite company as he now has one of ten best Test batting ratings of all-time, as seen in list below:

Batsman Rating Period

Don Bradman 961 v Ind, February, 1948

Len Hutton 945 v WI, March, 1954

Jack Hobbs 944 v Aus, August, 1912

Peter May 941 v Aus, August, 1956

Ricky Ponting 940 v Eng, November, 2006

Garry Sobers 938 v Ind, January, 1967

Viv Richards 938 v Eng, March, 1981

Clyde Walcott 938 v Aus, June, 1955

Matthew Hayden 935 v Eng, November, 2002

Mohd Yousuf 933 v WI, November, 2006

Ricky Ponting is fifth in that list, a position he reached following his scores of 196 and 60 not out in the first Ashes Test against England in Brisbane at end of November.

With Ponting scoring 142 in Australia’s first innings of the second Test in Adelaide, he may improve his rating still further when next set of figures are released.

Yousuf’s runs played a key role in his side’s 2-0 series win over the West Indies and that success has ensured Pakistan retains third place in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Championship table.

Pakistan remains one rating point ahead of fourth-placed India and seven points behind England, which lies second. Australia heads the table, 11 points clear of its nearest rival. West Indies remains in eighth position, behind seventh-place New Zealand.
Source:The News