This article was originally crafted by me on 21-07-2021. Reposted for archival purposes.
Pakistan cricket has been in search of a handy Wicket keeper-batsman for quite a long time now. They found Sarfaraz Ahmed after Kamran Akmal, but the former didn’t seem as efficient as they thought. He got stripped of both captaincy and inclusion in the squad. Mohammad Rizwan was their only replacement option for the tour against Ausies in 2019.
The 27 year old obviously didn’t disappoint his teammates. He scored a 37 and quality 95 to announce his return in the first test. Since then, Rizwan’s career didn’t tend to take the declining route. He has not been dropped once from the test squad since 2019.
Highest average among Pakistani Wicket-keeper batsmen in International cricket (min. 50 innings)
Mohammad Rizwan – 40.40
Sarfaraz Ahmed – 33.82
Umar Akmal – 31.63
Imtiaz Ahmed – 30.45
Kamran Akmal – 26.87
We can see Rizwan lying far ahead in this list. He and he alone maintain an average above 40 while none of the others even crossed 35. So If we think it through, lack of a well-reliable keeper-batsman has been a huge shortage for Pakistan and Rizwan might well be the remedy.
72, 53, 71, 60, 61, 10, 33, 18, 115*, 45, 21. These have been the scores of Mohammad Rizwan in his past 11 test innings. It constitutes an average of 55.9 which is nothing but impressive. Recent performances in the England tour is enough to certify his ability in the 20-over formats. His ODI career took a small dip but, the last innings was an attacking 74 from 58 balls, which is a good ray of hope. If he perseveres, Pakistan does wield a handy weapon for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
