Mohammad Rizwan: “It was Misbah-ul-Haq’s decision to make me an opener”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan ODI captain Mohammad Rizwan has named former captain and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq as the man responsible behind the decision to make him an opening batsman.
Rizwan mainly opened the batting in T20Is alongside Babar Azam and while the duo scored plenty of runs and won many matches for the men in green, they began being criticised for batting too slow.
Many people subsequently asked who suggested that Rizwan become an opener in the first place, and the 33-year-old has now unveiled that person as Misbah.
“It was Misbah-ul-Haq’s decision to make me an opener,” he was quoted as saying by Samaa TV.
Rizwan recently captained Pakistan in their three-match ODI series against New Zealand, where he scored 72 runs at an average of 24.
He then led the Multan Sultans in the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and finished with 367 runs in 10 games, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 52.42 and a strike-rate of 139.54.
Following PSL 10, Pakistan went up against Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series, but Rizwan was not selected in the team.
The men in green won the series 3-0.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh T20I Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper) and Saim Ayub
[TS_Poll id=”133″]