Imad Wasim: “We couldn’t find a place for Rizwan in the opening position… I didn’t want to change the opening pair of Alex Hales and Babar Azam”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Imad Wasim, the Karachi Kings captain, said there was no place for Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan to open the batting for the team.
Rizwan used to play for the Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) before moving to the Multan Sultans, who he captains now.
The 30-year-old is Pakistan’s go-to opener in T20Is, where he has scored a century and 25 fifties in 87 matches at an average of 49.07.
Despite this, Imad insisted that he didn’t want to spoil the opening partnership the Kings had at the time in order to accommodate Rizwan.
“We couldn’t find a place for Rizwan in the opening position… I didn’t want to change the opening pair of Alex Hales and Babar Azam,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In PSL 8 this year, Rizwan was the highest run-scorer with 550 runs in 11 matches, which included a century and four fifties, at an average of 55 and a strike-rate of 142.85.
He also represented Pakistan in their limited overs series against New Zealand, scoring 162 runs in five T20Is, which included two fifties, at an average of 54 and a strike-rate of 139.65.
He also made 161 runs in the five-match ODI series that followed, which included a top score of 54 not out, at an average of 53.66.