Interesting thread, in pursuit of trying to prove the OP wrong, i thoughts lets look at the MoM/Player of the match awards for the list of players mentioned above. Surely Rizwan having the 8th highest MoM awards in T20Is ever would prove he's a match winner worthy of being mentioned in the above list. But recency bias might have got the better of me and i think the OP might be on to something...
Player of the Match awards across Test, ODI, and T20I formats:
- Adam Gilchrist (Australia):
- Tests: 2
- ODIs: 33
- T20Is: 20
- Total: 55
- Jos Buttler (England):
- Tests: 0
- ODIs: 16
- T20Is: 22
- Total: 38
- Quinton de Kock (South Africa):
- Tests: 2
- ODIs: 28
- T20Is: 19
- Total: 49
- MS Dhoni (India):
- Tests: 6
- ODIs: 69
- T20Is: 16
- Total: 91
- Brendon McCullum (New Zealand):
- Tests: 3
- ODIs: 27
- T20Is: 24
- Total: 54
- Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka):
- Tests: 11
- ODIs: 25
- T20Is: 14
- Total: 50
- Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh):
- Tests: 3
- ODIs: 17
- T20Is: 9
- Total: 29
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan):
- Tests: 0
- ODIs: 0
- T20Is: 3
- Total: 3
- Brendon Taylor (Zimbabwe):
- Tests: 0
- ODIs: 11
- T20Is: 4
- Total: 15
- Shai Hope (West Indies):
- Tests: 3
- ODIs: 36
- T20Is: 6
- Total: 45
- Muhammad Rizwan (Pakistan):
- Tests: 0
- ODIs: 0
- T20Is: 12
- Total: 12
But does Rizwan really not belong? My personal opinion is that Rizwan can very easily make it in to this Pakistan team as a batter alone. So surely there has to be data that backs up his productivity as a batter when compared to the above mentioned list. So i dug deeper, and did some additional analysis that could add insight to this conversation:
Below is the above listed players with their total innings, 100s, 50s, and number of innings per 50+ score. I've added a few additional names to the list of my own accord just to see where these WK/batters fit.
Name, total innings, centuries, fifties, and the number of innings per fifty-plus score (including centuries):
- Adam Gilchrist:
- Innings: 375
- Centuries: 21
- Fifties: 64
- Innings/50+: 5.86
- Jos Buttler:
- Innings: 286
- Centuries: 10
- Fifties: 55
- Innings/50+: 4.91
- Quinton de Kock:
- Innings: 311
- Centuries: 24
- Fifties: 77
- Innings/50+: 3.82
- MS Dhoni:
- Innings: 430
- Centuries: 17
- Fifties: 108
- Innings/50+: 3.56
- Brendon McCullum:
- Innings: 438
- Centuries: 13
- Fifties: 71
- Innings/50+: 5.81
- Kumar Sangakkara:
- Innings: 594
- Centuries: 63
- Fifties: 153
- Innings/50+: 3.49
- Mushfiqur Rahim:
- Innings: 384
- Centuries: 10
- Fifties: 51
- Innings/50+: 6.98
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz:
- Innings: 97
- Centuries: 2
- Fifties: 11
- Innings/50+: 7.54
- Brendon Taylor:
- Innings: 319
- Centuries: 17
- Fifties: 44
- Innings/50+: 6.61
- Shai Hope:
- Innings: 232
- Centuries: 13
- Fifties: 48
- Innings/50+: 4.42
- Muhammad Rizwan:
- Innings: 254
- Centuries: 7
- Fifties: 53
- Innings/50+: 4.26
- Kamran Akmal:
- Innings: 217
- Centuries: 4
- Fifties: 18
- Innings/50+: 11.47
- Sarfaraz Ahmed:
- Innings: 196
- Centuries: 4
- Fifties: 21
- Innings/9.33
- Andy Flower:
- Innings: 282
- Centuries: 12
- Fifties: 63
- Innings/50+: 4.18
Was surprised to find Rizwan's innings per 50+ is actually greater than Gilly, Butler, McCullam Hope and just below Andy Flower who should be ahead of Brendon in this list. So as ungainly as his batting might seem, he is mighty effective.