Younis Ahmed: “The way Mohammad Rizwan plays with him in the powerplay, it puts pressure on the rival team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ex-Pakistan cricketer Younis Ahmed said wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan puts pressure on the opposition team with the way he bats in the powerplay.
He noted that Rizwan bats very well with captain Babar Azam in T20 Internationals, where they open the batting.
Since both of them regularly score runs and have a habit of winning games for the men in green, Younis acknowledged that the other team are usually under pressure to dismiss them as early as possible.
“The way Mohammad Rizwan plays with him in the powerplay, it puts pressure on the rival team,” he told Cricket Pakistan.
In the recent T20 tri-series against New Zealand and Bangladesh, Rizwan scored 201 runs in five matches, which included two fifties, at an average of 50.25 and a strike-rate of 122.56.
Azam, meanwhile, accumulated 192 runs in five games, which also included two half-centuries, at an average of 48 and a strike-rate of 123.87.
The in-form duo are now playing in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
In the opening game against India, which the men in green lost by four wickets off the last ball, Azam got out for a golden duck while Rizwan made four runs.
Pakistan’s next game will be against Zimbabwe on Thursday in Perth.
Pakistan’s 2022 T20 World Cup squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood
Reserves: Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir