Inzamam-ul-Haq will retire from Test cricket after playing in the second Test against South Africa next week, he announced on Friday.

“It was a difficult decision to make, but the youngsters are playing good and I have decided it’s better to leave,” Inzamam said.“I don’t want the youngsters to be under pressure with my presence in the dressing room.”

Inzamam, 37, had already retired from one-day internationals after Pakistan’s stunning first round exit from the World Cup in the West Indies earlier this year.

He played three first class matches for Yorkshire in the first division of the LV County Championship – scoring one half century. He expressed his unavailability to the selectors for the first Test against South Africa before being recalled for the second.

“The Lahore Test will be my last Test match and I have told the selectors that I am available,” Inzamam said.

Inzamam needs a further 20 runs to break Javed Miandad’s Pakistan record of 8,832 Test runs. He has played 119 Test matches and has scored 8,813 runs with 25 hundreds.

He also played 378 one-day internationals and scored 11,739 runs - only one of seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in the 50-over version of the game.

“It’s not a moment to cherish that I will break Miandad’s Test record at Lahore, he’s someone from whom I’ve learnt a lot,” Inzamam said. “Had it been a world record then it could have been a happy moment for me and a big honour for me.”

Inzamam said he felt he could have played for another year and a half, but planned to say goodbye to Test cricket in Pakistan. “I just wanted to play the last Test match in my own country so I decided it’s better to be the one at Lahore,” he said.

Inzamam named Pakistan’s victory in the 1992 World Cup and a one-wicket win against Bangladesh when he scored an unbeaten century in his hometown Test four years ago as his most memorable moments.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is planning a ceremony at the end of Lahore Test, which begins on Monday.

“Inzamam has set up a very good tradition [in the manner of announcing retirement] which we have not witnessed in Pakistan cricket too often,” Nasim Ashraf, the chairman of the PCB, said. “He met me a couple of days ago and informed about his future plans and we agree with him. Inzamam’s 17 centuries in Test matches are the match-winning ones and it’s enough to speak about his greatness."

Inzamam has weathered some difficult times in his 15-year Test career that started against England at Birmingham in 1992. Most notably he led the side when they forfeited the final Test at the Oval last year in a ball-tampering dispute with Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire.

Inzamam captained Pakistan in 31 Tests between 2000 and 2007, winning 11, losing 11 and drawing nine.