Now I’m not trying to rationalize these selections but no one in Pakistan believes Rizwan is irreplaceable. Who said that? At the time of selection, all the other selections were equally iffy. Mind you I criticized his selection for the T20 team too.
The equation is simple, whichever keeper performs best in PSL 6, gets the go moving forward. We have a huge crisis right now as to who will open with Babar. So we need to fix that too.
Just a quick justification on the PSL picks:
You can’t compare the retained picks. I’m sure Zalmi, Quetta might have been interested if they didn’t already have keepers in their ranks. Why would they let go of their already established keepers, Kami who is historically the top PSL batsman and Sarfaraz who is their captain? Islamabad - Rohail Nazir over Rizwan for the bench spot (behind Salt) makes sense as both Rohail and Salt have been part of the Islamabad setup before and it helps foster team spirit, rather than bringing in an outsider pick.
So you can’t say that Rizwan was seen as purely inferior to these other picks. There were other reasons involved as well. And regardless of what these franchises perceive, what matters at the end is whoever performs the best. We have a lot of selection headaches in our T20 team, and the keeper’s spot is one of them.
If we are to compare the potential of the other 5 franchises signing Rizwan, it further solidifies the argument that he isn't considered to be the best available keeper+T20 batsman in Pakistan, and also in the PSL market which is filled with international keeper/batsmen as well.
1. The situation at Islamabad United is a bit more embarrassing for the sake of Rizwan and those who support him as the best keeper/batsman currently in Pakistan for T20s.
-IU were clearly in the market for a first choice keeper/batsman with Luke Ronchi unavailable.
+Shadab Khan had selected Rizwan in all 3 of the T20is with Misbah and played him as an opener in all three games. Rizwan rewarded them for their trust in the final dead rubber with a score of 89, plus possibly answering the questions many of his critics may have had in relation to his skills as a T20 batsman.
-IU did not go for Rizwan as their first pick, they backed their loyal overseas (Phil Salt) who does not have 1% of the fan following Rizwan does around the world. If anything, considering Rizwan's now international pedigree and recent performance it was probably right for IU to pick Rizwan first as their first choice keeper+Batsman, and Phil salt as their 2nd choice or back up.
- This is a franchise that came last and had to improve. Their selections had to be on point and not something that will produce another season of poor results. Yet they didnt want to invest in Rizwan?
2. Lahore Qalandars had no need to go in for a specialist keeper batsman with Ben Dunk as the retained pro. However with Chris Lynn gone and potentially Fakhar Zaman gone, they did need an opener or openers. They picked Fakhar early on but no second opener and this is when they had the option to pick their replacement keeper+ potential opener. The choice was between Rizwan and Zeeshan Ashraf. Nothing was stopping them to pick the current opener of Pakistan cricket who happens to be the best keeper in the world (apparently). Why didnt they? Rizwan most certainly would have played as a batsman/fielder even if he isn't asked to keep.
3. Rizwan stands zero, absolutely zero chance against Kamran Akmal as a keeper/batsman in PSL or T20 domestic cricket in Pakistan. Rizwan is only a better keeper than him, this is a known fact. Kamran is old now and probably not as good as he used to be, but there is absolutely no comparison in the batting abilities of Kamran in comparison to Rizwan especially in limited overs cricket. Rizwan has a mountain to climb to surpass the achievements Kamran has with the bat in maybe all formats of cricket at the moment. Yes, Rizwan is fitter and better as a keeper. Thats it.
-Having said that, Kamran the batsman+ the back up keeper was not something that was out of the equation for a potential buyer in Peshawar Zalmi, also with a view into the future as Kamran may only play another 1-2 years hence his performances will start to decline. But I guess this would have just been another KK type torture for Rizwan who has no chance to make it into the top 6 of PZ and would depend on them not picking Liam Livingstone as an opener in order to pick 4 other overseas in Miller, Mujeeb, Saqib Mahmood and Shane Rutherford. Rizwan has no business here at all.
4. Quetta Gladiators is the complete no go, as you have pointed out. They have retained their specialist captain (Sarfaraz) over the specialist keeper that is Rizwan. Also, head coach Moin Khan will have to pull some strings in order to play Azam Khan in the keeper/Batsman role to offer him to the world and Pakistan as the hard hitting middle order or lower order batsman that can win games for Pakistan. The top order batsman that have been picked by QG have picked in the overseas categories have zero chance of being replaced by Rizwan (Gayle and Banton). Another team where Rizwan has no business really.
5. Rizwan fits in perfectly in MS who I believe will not qualify for the play offs. I dont think they have picked him to bat in the top 3 because one of those three slots are reserved for captain super fit Shan Masood. You cannot have Shan and Rizwan in the top 3 of a T20 franchise side. I think the plan is to open with Lyth+Vince, Masood at 3 and Russouw at 4. Also, Chris Lynn when available will open with either Vince or Lyth.
+Rizwan will not bat ahead of Sohaib, Khushdil and Afridi. Rizwan may have been picked as a specialist keeper to bat at 9 after Sohail Tanvir and to keep against Imran Tahir, Afridi, Qadir etc.
Rizwan has no business in PSL overall really. I dont think MS will know what to do with him especially if they have Lynn, Lyth and Vince all available plus Masood having to bat somewhere.
