Mohammad Rizwan: “He’s a bit different in the way he’s gifted. While I plan or discuss batting with Babar Azam in a partnership, when I bat with Saud I tell him I’m not planning anything with him because the way he plays his shots gets him runs anyway”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan feels middle order batsman Saud Shakeel is gifted in a unique way as he is a natural run-scorer.
Rizwan noted that when he is batting with the 28-year-old from Karachi, he doesn’t need to come up with a plan as Shakeel is able to keep the runs flowing.
This is vastly different to Babar Azam as Rizwan revealed he holds plenty of discussions when batting with the Pakistan captain.
“He’s a bit different in the way he’s gifted. While I plan or discuss batting with Babar Azam in a partnership, when I bat with Saud I tell him I’m not planning anything with him because the way he plays his shots gets him runs anyway,” he told ESPNcricinfo as quoted by Geo Super.
Shakeel and Rizwan recently played in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, with the former making 241 runs in nine games, which included two fifties, at an average of 34.42.
As for Rizwan, he scored 395 runs in nine matches, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 65.83.
Pakistan triumphed in their first two games against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka before losing four straight to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.
They subsequently took down Bangladesh and New Zealand to keep their hopes of reaching the World Cup semi-finals alive.
However, they failed to make it to the final four and lost their last group stage match against England by 93 runs.
Rizwan and Shakeel will now represent Pakistan in their three-match Test series against Australia, which begins on December 14 in Perth.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi