Wahab Riaz: “When you form a team, you identify your key players or those the team can rely on, and right now, that is undoubtedly Babar and Rizwan”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan selector Wahab Riaz has conceded that the national team tends to rely on limited overs captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan.
Azam and Rizwan have been Pakistan’s go-to run-scorers in all three formats and have repeatedly rescued the men in green from precarious positions.
While there is a need for other batsmen to step up, Wahab acknowledged that Azam and Rizwan will always be “key players” the men in green look to when they are in a spot of bother.
“When you form a team, you identify your key players or those the team can rely on, and right now, that is undoubtedly Babar and Rizwan,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Azam accumulated 125 runs, which included a top score of 69, at an average of 31.25 and a strike-rate of 138.88.
As for Rizwan, he made 67 runs in the three matches he played.
Following this, the men in green took on Ireland in a three-match T20I series and Azam finished with 132 runs, which included two fifties, at an average of 44 and a strike-rate of 148.31.
Rizwan, meanwhile, also scored 132 runs, which included two half-centuries, but at an average of 66 and a strike-rate of 150.
Next up for Pakistan will be four T20Is against England from May 22 to May 30.
After that, they will feature in the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will take place in the West Indies and United States of America from June 1 to 29.
Pakistan’s first T20 World Cup game will be against the United States of America in Dallas on June 6.
Pakistan Squad for Ireland and England T20I Series: Babar Azam (capt), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan
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