Younis also completed 50 centuries and 15,000 runs in first-class cricket with this ton. Pakistan successfully chased a total of 377 runs in fourth innings against Sri Lanka in the third Test match. Younis became 12th batsman to score 30 Test centuries, after Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar first scored 30 Test centuries in 1983.

Younis Khan made his international debut in an ODI against Sri Lanka at Karachi in February 2000, and has since played over 250 ODIs for Pakistan. His test debut came during the same tour in 2000 against Sri Lanka on 26 February 2000 and played in over 110 Test matches until retirement. Younis was one of the few batsmen who retained his place in the team after Pakistan’s disastrous World Cup campaign in 2003, but lost it soon after due to a string of poor scores in the home series against Bangladesh and South Africa. He came back for the one-day series against India, but failed to cement a place in the Test side.

It was his return to the side in October 2004, at the pivotal one-down, against Sri Lanka in Karachi that laid the groundwork for his emergence as a force in Pakistan cricket. Younis was the top run-getter in the disastrous 3–0 whitewash in Australia immediately after and on the tour of India, for which he was elevated to vice-captain. After a horror start to the series, he came back strongly, capping things off with 267 in the final Test. It was his highest Test score that came off 504 balls in the first innings, to set up a series levelling victory in Bangalore.

Younis had to deal with a number of deaths in his family during 2005 and 2006. Earlier in 2005 he had to fly back from a tour to Australia after his father had died. Later in the year during England’s tour to Pakistan, Younis’ eldest brother, Mohammed Sharif Khan, who in Younis’s words, taught him to play cricket, died aged 41 in a car accident in Ukraine. Another older brother, Farman Ali Khan was only 39 when he was killed in a car accident in Germany in December 2006.

In 2005, Younis played county cricket for Nottinghamshire in England. In the 2007 English domestic cricket season, played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club as an overseas player. In doing so he was the third overseas Asian cricketer to play for Yorkshire following Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, and was succeeded by Pakistani player Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Apart from being an accomplished batsman, Younis is also a skilled slip fielder and a very occasional leg-spin bowler. Once, Craig McMillan hit Younis for 26 runs, 4 4 4 4 6 4 in an over, a then world record, during 3rd Test at Westpac Trust Park, Hamilton. He has performed particularly well on foreign grounds, including on tours of Australia, India, England and Sri Lanka. In the six Tests he has played against India, Younis averages an exceptional 106, the highest average against India by a Pakistani cricketer. Apart from his 267 at Bangalore, Younis also made 147 at Kolkata in 2005 and a pair of centuries during India’s trip to Pakistan in 2006. More importantly, the tour to India also showcased his potential as a future captain of Pakistan and his energetic and astute leadership has impressed many people. Also in 2006, Younis made a century in the third Test against England at Headingley. On 22 January 2007, he scored a matchwinning unbeaten 67 in the 4th innings to guide Pakistan to victory over South Africa in Port Elizabeth. The five wicket win levelled the series at 1–1.

In 2005, he was one of the 15 nominees for the ICC Test Player of the Year. He is the second fastest Pakistani in terms of innings to reach 4000 Test runs, behind Javed Miandad. Younis reached the milestone in 87 innings, just one more than Sachin Tendulkar took.

His ODI captaincy first came during West Indies touring third ODI on 22 May 2005, where Pakistan won the match by 22 runs and sealed the series 3–0. He first led Pakistan Test team against the same West Indies tour in 2005, where regular captain Inzamam was given one-Test ban for showing dissent against India. In September 2006, he was offered the position of captain for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, following the suspension of Inzamam ul Haq. He turned down the offer, stating he did not want to be a “dummy captain”. However, on the morning of 7 October 2006, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Khan would lead his team in the tournament. In the series, Pakistan won only one match and lost two, thus quit from the series in the league as well.

Younis is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the third highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket (joint with Andrew Symonds), with the highest success rate.

Younis married Amna on 30 March 2007. They have three children: two son and one daughter. His eldest son Owais Khan was born on 26 December 2007. His daughter name is Ammarah Khan and his younger son name is Ammar Khan.

Younis also mentioned his grief at the death of Bob Woolmer in March 2007 after Pakistan’s exit from the World Cup. He stated that he saw Bob as a father figure after the loss of his own father and that he was able to share many personal thoughts with the cricket coach.

In 2008, Younis signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by the Rajasthan Royals for a bid of US$225,000. He however played only 1 match in the tournament against Kings XI Punjab and scored 1 run. He has not appeared in the IPL since.

For his performances in 2008, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.

Younis Khan topped the ICC’s Test Batting Rankings in February 2009 after an acclaimed innings of 313 in his first Test as captain, in the process of helping save the match for Pakistan. Younis ranking score of 880 is the third highest achieved by a Pakistani batsmen after Mohammad Yousuf (933), Javed Miandad (885) and just ahead of Inzamam-ul-Haq (870).

After Pakistan’s 2–1 defeat to Sri Lanka in 2009, PCB chairman Ijaz Butt appointed Younis Khan as the permanent captain of both the Test and ODI teams. The appointment became effective as of 27 January 2009. Shortly after accepting the post, Younis was quoted as saying, “I will try and fix things that aren’t right at the moment… I want our team to be consistent above all, in everything we do and that will require everyone to put their hands up.” He also went on to say that he had an excellent relationship with former captain Shoaib Malik and expected his full support. Younis went on to say that he expects full support from former captain Shoaib Malik whom he called a senior player in the side.

Khan resigned as captain on 13 October 2009 due to a parliamentary investigation into match fixing that was alleged to have taken place during his reign. Despite being cleared in the investigation, Khan said “Yes I have submitted my resignation because I am disgusted by these match-fixing allegations made against me and the team.”

Khan also dropped a catch of Grant Elliott in the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy semi-final. He had a hair-line fracture in his finger prior to the match. Later PCB Chairman requested Khan to take back his resignation and Khan did it under his conditions. However, after captaining the team for a three-match series against New Zealand Younis took a break for Test matches in New Zealand and the series in Australia the captaincy was given to Mohammad Yousuf and since then Younis has not captained the national team.

After winning T20I trophy in 2009 ICC World Twenty20, Younis announced that it was his last international Twenty20 appearance by citing, “This is my last Twenty20 game [for Pakistan], so I am retiring from T20 internationals,” Younis said, “I am now 31, I am old for this kind of cricket.” No immediate announcement was made as to the identity of his successor as 20-over captain. On 29 July 2009, it was confirmed that Shahid Afridi would succeed him as the Twenty20 Captain.

Younis’s career after he gave up the captaincy continued on a downwards spiral as he was banned on 10 March 2010. Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Younis Khan had been banned indefinitely for “infighting which brought down the whole team during the tour of Australia in January”. His ban was however overturned three months later in June 2010. Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing, Younis was not selected for the series against England. Pakistan continued to suffer frequent batting collapses against England in Test cricket. This put the Pakistan Cricket Board under pressure to restore Younis to the game. Around the same time, Pakistani batsman and Test Captain Salman Butt was suspended on charges of being involved in spot-fixing. This resulted in several former captains including Moin Khan and Zaheer Abbas wanting Younis reinstated to the Test team as captain. However the Pakistan Cricket Board did not clear Younis for selection on the tours of South Africa in 2010. Despite being the first-choice for captaincy, the selecting panel Mohsin Khan announced that Misbah-ul-Haq was recalled and made captain. Signs of an improvement in the relationship of the Pakistan Cricket Board and Younis began to emerge after the board contacted Younis to potentially be selected for the tour Against South Africa in October 2010.

On 31 August 2010, the Daily Telegraph in its news article mentioned that Younis Khan was associated with alleged match-fixer Mazhar Majeed. Younis threatened to sue the Daily Telegraph over the fact that they posted false information about Younis. The Daily Telegraph admitted that they incorrectly reported that Younis Khan was affiliated with Mazhar Majeed. After a full public apology by the Daily Telegraph, Younis dropped the defamation charges against the newspaper. The Pakistan Cricket Board subsequently announced that they had successfully reconciled with Younis and that they intended to use him on the tour of South Africa in October 2010 as a replacement for the injured Mohammad Yousuf.

Younis confirmed that he was available to play in all three-formats of the game. He also announced that he was no longer in the race for the captaincy After announcing his comeback to Twenty20 cricket Younis was selected for the three match Twenty20 series against New Zealand in December 2010. Younis played in all three-matches but struggled for form.

On 23 March 2010, Younis was awarded the Pride of Performance by President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.

During a tour of the West Indies in May 2011, Younis was given permission to return home early due to the death of his elder brother Shamshad Khan in Germany.

On 9 July 2014, Younis has been recalled in one day team for the Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan.

Younis surpassed Sir Donald Bradman’s haul in his 101st Test match by scoring his 30th Test century (171*) against Sri Lanka in third and final Test at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in July 2015. With this century, Younis Khan became first batsman in the Test cricket history to score five centuries in the fourth innings of a Test match, surpassing the earlier record of four centuries by Sunil Gavaskar, Ricky Ponting.

For his performances in 2015, he was named in the World Test XI by the ICC.

On 11 November 2015 Younis announced his retirement from ODI format saying that the opening match of the Pakistan against England will be his last one. He scored only 9 runs in last ODI.Younis Khan Played 264 One Day matches scoring 7240 runs. Younis is currently sixth on the list of highest run getters for Pakistan in ODI cricket. He scored seven hundreds and 48 fifties with an average of 31.34.

He contributed as a mentor for Peshawar Zalmi in the 2017 PSL season and the 2018 PSL season.

However, in a conversation in Karachi, Younis opened his idea about the retirement, where he can extend his international career, but only if the Pakistan board and team needs him to do so. The news sudden many of the global fans, and some said he should retire with the dignity and some said he should extend the career for two more years. With that, on 23 April 2017, Younis confirmed his retirement at the end of West Indies tour with Misbah, by citing he will retire even if he scores “a hundred in every innings of every match against West Indies”.

Younis played his last international match against West Indies on 10 May 2017 at Roseau. He scored 18 runs in the first innings and 35 runs in the second innings. However, Pakistan won the match by 101 runs and sealed the series 2–1. The retirement of Younis and Misbah at the same time gave big farwell to both of them and ESPNcricinfo quoted their retirement with #MisYou.

On 11 May 2017, ACB announced that Younis Khan will be next coach of Afghanistan national cricket team. Later on, this offer was declined by Younis Khan.

In July 2018, he resigned from his roles of both captain and player of the United Bank Limited cricket team, after the United Bank Limited company decided to disband the team.

On 23 March 2018, he was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz by President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain.

On 9 June 2020, the PCB appointed Younis Khan as their batting coach for Pakistan’s tour to England. His contract as batting coach extended till T-20 Cricket World Cup 2022.