Pakistan national cricket team’s star wicket-keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan would be keen to make the mark in the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand which is set to commence from 18th April in Pakistan. There was a change in the opening pair of Pakistan against New Zealand as Babar Azam was replaced by Saim Ayub and he opened the batting along with the dashing Mohammad Rizwan.
The upcoming T20I series will be extremely vital for the Men in Green who would be aiming to get some T20I match practice before the T20 WC 2024 which is set to take place in June 2024 in Caribbean & USA. Shaheen Afridi’s tactics were quite questionable against Kiwis and the PCB is also set to name a new head coach for that series and marquee tournament.
It will be interesting to see whether New Zealand Cricket (NZC) names a full fledged squad for the 5 T20I matches as already, the Black Caps’ players have linked up with their respective IPL squads. Nevertheless, the hosts Pakistan needs to quickly find a winning combination as the 20 team T20 WC 2024 is expected to be a thrilling one.
Babar Azam & me understand what is best for Pakistan- Mohammad Rizwan
Mohammad Rizwan was having an interaction with Cricket Pakistan. Mohammad Rizwan took a unique stance on the recently concluded New Zealand T20I tour which the Men in Green lost by 1-4 and said that the skipper Shaheen Afridi adopted a rotation policy. Rizwan pointed out that the opening pair of him & Babar could have performed well in New Zealand T20I tour and also said that he is also ready to roll the arm for the team.
“I was asked that if splitting my opening pair with Babar hurt Pakistan. Maybe I didn’t understand the question at that time, but I said it hurt Pakistan in the context that Pakistan had lost four matches. I did not say that it hurt Pakistan because we were split as an opening pair. We understand what is best for Pakistan and who determines the best? The coach can see, the captain can see,” said Mohammad Rizwan.
“If we talk about the New Zealand tour, even then Shaheen adopted a rotation policy, so that the best can be extracted from each player. We don’t say that we made a mistake by going back and forth, but we can say that you should look at things logically, do things logically that are best for Pakistan,” he stated.
“I even said that if I am needed for bowling, I am ready for that too, I can even leave my wicket-keeping. If you look at my career so far, in 26 matches, I have gone to bat at numbers 7, 8, and 9. No batsman has gone in at number 9, I have. I cannot say that I will not do this. I was ready before, and I am still ready now,” he added.