Since the start of Pakistan’s campaign in the Champions Trophy, Younis Khan’s broken finger has poked out prominently in all his interactions with the media. Before the game against India, he was seen as a daring leader who didn’t worry about pain or aggravating his injury as he held the reins of the team for a crucial game. But after the team’s semi-final loss, in a sudden change of opinion, Younis’s boldness has begun to be perceived as unnecessary bravado.

Fielding at short cover, he dropped Grant Elliott trying to catch the ball with his fingers pointed up, the way the Aussies do when getting under a high ball. Elliott, who went on to make 75, was then on 42. Later, Younis was to say that he would have taken the knee-high, simple catch in the conventional ‘fingers down’ style if not for the injury. “I was trying to save my finger,” he said.

It was a forthright comment from a skipper who doesn’t believe in hiding behind clichéd answers when asked uncomfortable questions, a rare trait in world cricket. Later, he went on to add that he had got Gautam Gambhir run out with a direct hit, the India game’s turning point, with the same hand.

“In the previous matches, I had got a run-out and a good catch and people praised that, saying ‘he is doing it with a broken finger.’” Aware that the fickle fans would blame him for the loss, the straight-talking skipper said that he doesn’t care about such things.

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