Younus Khan fit to take on India

Pakistan's regular skipper Younus Khan, who was recovering from a finger injury, has been cleared for their next Champions Trophy match against arch-rival India in Centurion on September 26.

Younus missed their campaign-opener against West Indies, which Pakistan won by five wickets under the stand-in skipper Shahid Afridi yesterday, due to a hair-line fracture in his little finger of right hand.

Younus who bats at the crucial number three position and is one of Pakistan's senior batsmen sustained the fracture during a warm-up match against Sri Lanka at Benoni on the run-up to the eight-nation tournament.

"Younus suffered a minor hairline fracture in his right hand finger during Pakistan's practice match, but he will play against India," a statement issued by the Pakistan Cricket Board said.

"He is under medication and could have been available for the match against West Indies but the team management decided not to take risk so that he could be fully fit and available for the crunch game against India on September 26 at centurion," the statement said.

It would be the first international encounter between Pakistan and India since relations between the two countries soured following the Mumbai terror incidents last year.

The attack also led to Indian government not permitting its team to tour Pakistan in January this year for a scheduled Test-series causing plenty of financial losses to the PCB.

With this background, the Champions Trophy clash between the two neighbouring countries is already generating plenty of hype.

Meanwhile, Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed also told Geo Super channel that Younus had held a net session without taking any pain killer.

"It is a good sign and he will have more nets before the match against India. But he played without the help of pain killer injections, so we remain hopeful," Saeed added.

A desperate Younus earlier insisted that he would not mind playing against Mahendra Singh Dhoni's men even with pain-killers.