Mohammad Rizwan

A talented right-hand wicket-keeper batsman who has scored centuries across all three formats, Mohammad Rizwan is one of the most technically sound batsmen amongst the current crop of Pakistani players. He made his international debut in 2015 and after an impressive start, he was eventually dropped from the national team, owing to his poor form against the top international sides.

Rizwan made his ODI debut in 2015 against Bangladesh and scored a fluent 67 off just 58 deliveries. He made a bright start against teams like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Sri Lanka, but failed to score big against the more challenging bowling line-ups. 

The following year, Rizwan made his Test debut against the Black Caps. He played a solitary Test and scored a duck in his maiden innings. A lean patch in the ODI format and the subsequent rise of Sarfaraz Ahmed as the Pakistani skipper meant that Rizwan was eventually dropped from the ODI setup before the 2017 Champions Trophy.

It wasn’t until 2019 that Rizwan got another opportunity to showcase his skills in the shorter format. Rizwan has had a better red-ball career than his white-ball exploits. A technically sound player, Rizwan has coped easily with the longest format of the game. 

He was a part of the Pakistan Test squad to travel to Australia in 2019. Australia won the series convincingly, but Rizwan was the lone shining light for his team as the elegant batter accumulated 177 runs in the two-match Test series. 

Rizwan was named in Pakistan’s Test squad for the away series against England, but he was one of the seven players from the squad to test positive for COVID-19. In December 2020, for the first time, Rizwan was handed the Test captaincy against the Kiwis, when the regular skipper, Babar Azam was ruled out due to an injury.

2021 started brightly for him, as he slammed his maiden Test ton against South Africa and helped his team defeat South Africa in the two-match Test series.

He continued his good form in the subsequent T20I series against the Proteas as he scored an unbeaten 104 which included 6 boundaries and 7 huge hits. The Peshawar-born currently captains Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

A talented and skilled cricketer, Rizwan has all the attributes to be a successful cricketer for Pakistan. He is at the peak of his career and it feels as though the coming years will see the best of the wicketkeeper-batsman.

(As of March 2021)