Ramiz Raja: “It takes time to form an opening pair. It’s not an easy task. So, if you have a pair, and they consistently kept you in the field during matches, what benefit did you get after breaking it?”
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Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja expressed his frustration towards the decision to break up the opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in T20Is.
The duo had been Pakistan’s go-to openers in the shortest format for a long time and had repeatedly done well.
However, both of them were consistently criticised for their low strike-rates, which their critics felt put a lot of unnecessary pressure on the middle order.
In the recent five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Rizwan retained his spot as an opening batsman, while Azam batted at number three.
Ramiz feels that the men in green shouldn’t have split up the opening partnership between Azam and Rizwan as “it takes time to form an opening pair.”
“So much pressure was created to break the opening pair of Babar and Rizwan. After breaking the opening partnership, which was evaluated based on the strike-rate, you bring in new players, they may perform well in leagues, but international cricket is a different beast where there is pressure, and the focus of the entire world is on you,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
“You broke the opening pair that was famous worldwide. Either you have [a] workshop of trained openers behind you who are gradually being introduced when you have no other options. It takes time to form an opening pair. It’s not an easy task. So, if you have a pair, and they consistently kept you in the field during matches, what benefit did you get after breaking it?”
Azam will now captain the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Rizwan will lead the Multan Sultans.
PSL 9 will be played from February 17 to March 18 in four cities – Lahore, Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph
Multan Sultans Squad for PSL 9: Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Iftikhar Ahmed, David Willey, Khushdil Shah, Usama Mir, Dawid Malan, Abbas Afridi, Reeza Hendricks, Tayyab Tahir, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Khan, Mohammad Ali, Faisal Akram, Yasir Khan, Chris Jordan, Aftab Ibrahim, Johnson Charles, Mohammad Shehzad
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