Kevin Pietersen: “[He] did brilliantly to battle back from illness and score 67 against Australia in the semi-final”
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Legendary England batsman Kevin Pietersen praised Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan for battling brilliantly in the T20 World Cup semi-final against Australia.
Rizwan spent two nights in the ICU with a severe chest infection prior to the match.
Despite this, he smashed 67 runs off 52 balls, which included three boundaries and four sixes, in the match.
His efforts went in vain, however, as Australia won by five wickets, but Rizwan won the hearts of fans all over the world.
“[He] did brilliantly to battle back from illness and score 67 against Australia in the semi-final,” Pietersen, who included Rizwan in his T20 World Cup team of the tournament, told Betway as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.Â
Rizwan was brilliant throughout the T20 World Cup as he accumulated 281 runs in six matches, which included three half-centuries, at an average of 70.25 and a strike-rate of 127.72.
In the three-match T20 series against Bangladesh, he made 90 runs at an average of 30 and a strike-rate of 90.90.
He followed that up with five runs in the first Test against Bangladesh, which Pakistan won by eight wickets.
The second Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh will begin on Saturday in Dhaka.
Pakistan squad for Bangladesh Test series: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Bilal Asif, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Afridi, Zahid Mahmood