Mohammad Rizwan: “I can say that Babar bhai has a big heart. We both agreed that there is no issue [in splitting the opening pair]. We both told the management that they can try whatever combination they want”
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Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan expressed his disappointment towards the team management for ending his opening partnership with Babar Azam.
He noted that both of them were excelling at the top of the order and things were “working well” as they were scoring runs consistently.
Despite this, a change was made for the recent five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which saw big-hitting youngster Saim Ayub join Rizwan as an opener, while Azam was shifted down to number three.
“I can say that Babar bhai has a big heart. We both agreed that there is no issue [in splitting the opening pair]. We both told the management that they can try whatever combination they want. The difficulty arises when you break things that were already working well. However, management is looking at what can be extracted best from different combinations,” Rizwan was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Rizwan’s next assignment will be to captain the Multan Sultans in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Azam will lead the Peshawar Zalmi.
PSL 9 will be held 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