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"We may need Mohammad Rizwan to play as a batter as he has a good track record in Australia": Shan Masood

The Bald Eagle said:
Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back."
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lol at that lil break.

Saifi was never cut out for high quality cricket at this stage of his career. Time to give young guns a chance. Riz needs to prove his metal again though.
 
I'm curious to see how Rizwan goes. His technique has always been a bit off but he's a gritty player. So i'm curious to see if the Aussies will expose him or if he can bat them out.
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Pakistan Test Captain Shan Masood explaining the choice of Rizwan over Sarafraz in the 2nd Test

"Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white ball cricket. And he also had a gap in red-ball cricket since Sarfaraz took over from him for the New Zealand series. Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan hadn't played a lot of red-ball cricket. So there was a method to it. He's been there, he played red-ball cricket. Karachi had a very good season where he was the tournament's MVP, and that allowed us to get a player like Rizwan into shape. If I had it my way, I'd ideally like both to play but that's not possible. Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back."
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You are the captain, who’s way is it??
 
Asad T said:
I'm curious to see how Rizwan goes. His technique has always been a bit off but he's a gritty player. So i'm curious to see if the Aussies will expose him or if he can bat them out.
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Grit in face of 145kph may not work.
 
MenInG said:
Grit in face of 145kph may not work.
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It has to work now. He’s had 99% of social media and fans cry for him to play just because they hate Sarfaraz

It better work because all we have heard in the past 2-3 months is Rizwan is a great player of SENA conditions
 
Rizwan in Test Cricket:

Pak-5/94 - scored 95 vs Aus in Aus
Pak-5/120-scored 72 vs Eng in Eng
Pak - 5/75-scored 53 vs Eng in Eng
Pak-5/52 scored 71 vs Nz in Nz -
Pak - 4/74 - scored 60 vs Nz in NZ
Pak-4/83 scored 61 vs NZ in NZ
Pak-4/63 - scored 115* vs SA in PAK

Evidently, Rizwan has played crucial innings for Pakistan in Test cricket during crisis situations.
 
gazza619 said:
lol at that lil break.

Saifi was never cut out for high quality cricket at this stage of his career. Time to give young guns a chance. Riz needs to prove his metal again though.
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In 2014-16 he was great. But that was a long time ago, nearly a decade.
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Pakistan Test Captain Shan Masood explaining the choice of Rizwan over Sarafraz in the 2nd Test

"Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white ball cricket. And he also had a gap in red-ball cricket since Sarfaraz took over from him for the New Zealand series. Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan hadn't played a lot of red-ball cricket. So there was a method to it. He's been there, he played red-ball cricket. Karachi had a very good season where he was the tournament's MVP, and that allowed us to get a player like Rizwan into shape. If I had it my way, I'd ideally like both to play but that's not possible. Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back."
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Shan is in for some real tough time with Pakistani fans if he's going to be in love with his own voice and keep talking so much. He's trying to justify every decision of his with too much of explanation, never a sign of confident person. He can try to project himself to be this nice but analytical guy who thinks through small things, but one more test loss and a couple of failures and knives will be out for him in the 3rd match.
 
happydavy said:
Shan is in for some real tough time with Pakistani fans if he's going to be in love with his own voice and keep talking so much. He's trying to justify every decision of his with too much of explanation, never a sign of confident person. He can try to project himself to be this nice but analytical guy who thinks through small things, but one more test loss and a couple of failures and knives will be out for him in the 3rd match.
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The funny thing is Sarfraz would be playing as a specialist mid order batsman on merit if Shan wasn’t captain. Every other middle order bat as a better/comparable record apart from Shan. He averages 10-20 runs less than every single batsman in the team. It’s captaincy that saved him. Want Shan to succeed and hope he picks up form. But it does make me laugh a bit when he says he’d try to include both if he could, he’s part of the reason they can’t.
 
FearlessRoar said:
Rizwan in Test Cricket:

Pak-5/94 - scored 95 vs Aus in Aus
Pak-5/120-scored 72 vs Eng in Eng
Pak - 5/75-scored 53 vs Eng in Eng
Pak-5/52 scored 71 vs Nz in Nz -
Pak - 4/74 - scored 60 vs Nz in NZ
Pak-4/83 scored 61 vs NZ in NZ
Pak-4/63 - scored 115* vs SA in PAK

Evidently, Rizwan has played crucial innings for Pakistan in Test cricket during crisis situations.
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His overseas record is about 100x better than Sarfraz’s. Obvious choice as our WK.
 
BouncerGuy said:
Sarfraz cannot be judged on just a 1 test match in Australia since he has returned to the team, he was the player of the series against Kiwis. Rizwan no doubt has some good record but his inclusion for Sarfraz is not justified atm. He can play as a batter though in place of Salman but then we will be left with no spin option at all.
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Last test series was against SL where Agha Salman was the MOS.
 
Ian Smith "It was the best call for Rizwan to be in today"
 
Over 17.2:

Smith edges but bounces just infront of Rizwan. Hasan was ready to celebrate. Should Rizwan have been a yard or two closer considering the pace bowlers aren’t exactly bowling 150kph?
 
It was the right call to play Rizwan in place of Sarfraz. Rizwan's record in SENA has been better than Sarfaraz's. Hope he can do justice to his selection in both departments.
 
I regret supporting Shan as captain.

Thought he would take the team forward and cleanse it from the dosti yaari culture however looks like he is part of the problem
 
CerebralPatriot said:
I regret supporting Shan as captain.

Thought he would take the team forward and cleanse it from the dosti yaari culture however looks like he is part of the problem
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Explain a bit ?
Rizwan has been batting well recently and probably does deserve his spot in the team ?
 
Ali T said:
Explain a bit ?
Rizwan has been batting well recently and probably does deserve his spot in the team ?
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Batting well?

Pakistan crashed out of a World Cup in sub continent conditions where he held an important batting position.

We lost to Australia, India, South Africa, Afghanistan and England.

We beat minnows Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Bangladesh. Rizwan batted well here as that’s his level.

We beat New Zealand, Rizwan had no role in that win.
 
CerebralPatriot said:
I regret supporting Shan as captain.

Thought he would take the team forward and cleanse it from the dosti yaari culture however looks like he is part of the problem
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He will be devasted that you don't support him. We on the other hand wish him the best because he is our captain.
 
Rana said:
Batting well?

Pakistan crashed out of a World Cup in sub continent conditions where he held an important batting position.

We lost to Australia, India, South Africa, Afghanistan and England.

We beat minnows Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Bangladesh. Rizwan batted well here as that’s his level.

We beat New Zealand, Rizwan had no role in that win.
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I really don't think you can blame Rizwan for the losses in the WC. That was mainly down to our poor bowling.
Just pulling out some of the recent scores from the WC since it was the latest series:

VS India: He scored 49 which was the second highest after Babar's 50.
VS Australia: He scored 46 at a strike rate of 115. 3rd highest with the highest score of 70 by Imam.
VS South Africa: Got a start. Made 31
Vs Afghanistan: He flopped
Vs Australia: 36 of 50 which isn't great especially chasing over 330.

Point being he might not have set the WC on fire, but he certainly wasn't that poor. Would probably consider his batting at the WC above average.
 
Ali T said:
I really don't think you can blame Rizwan for the losses in the WC. That was mainly down to our poor bowling.
Just pulling out some of the recent scores from the WC since it was the latest series:

VS India: He scored 49 which was the second highest after Babar's 50.
VS Australia: He scored 46 at a strike rate of 115. 3rd highest with the highest score of 70 by Imam.
VS South Africa: Got a start. Made 31
Vs Afghanistan: He flopped
Vs Australia: 36 of 50 which isn't great especially chasing over 330.

Point being he might not have set the WC on fire, but he certainly wasn't that poor. Would probably consider his batting at the WC above average.
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Standards for Rizwan are incredibly high. Saw no such high standards for Kamran or Sarfraz despite them being worse keepers, all we hoped was that they averaged over 30 which Kamran over his whole career failed to do so, and Sarfraz didn’t do during his captaincy which is why he was eventually dropped. Kind of speaks volumes of the output of Rizwan compared to past wicket keepers.
 
ads101 said:
Standards for Rizwan are incredibly high. Saw no such high standards for Kamran or Sarfraz despite them being worse keepers, all we hoped was that they averaged over 30 which Kamran over his whole career failed to do so, and Sarfraz didn’t do during his captaincy which is why he was eventually dropped. Kind of speaks volumes of the output of Rizwan compared to past wicket keepers.
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Yeah. I fail to understand who people think is the better replacement? Sarfaraz is a decent player in the subcontinent, but I don't think he's the answer.

Keeping and batting, Rizwan is better.

However, I have noticed an improvement in Sarfaraz's keeping during the first test. Seems lighter on his feet.
 
ads101 said:
Standards for Rizwan are incredibly high. Saw no such high standards for Kamran or Sarfraz despite them being worse keepers, all we hoped was that they averaged over 30 which Kamran over his whole career failed to do so, and Sarfraz didn’t do during his captaincy which is why he was eventually dropped. Kind of speaks volumes of the output of Rizwan compared to past wicket keepers.
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This guy gets to do whatever he wants, play wherever he wants, bats wherever he wants, remove whoever he wants from the squad to make sure he goes unchallenged.

Don’t cry about standards being too high for him.
 
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Cricket Warrior said:
a big repsonsibilty on rizwan to prove his worth in this test match.
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Rizwan has nothing left to prove.

Every single “Pakistan all time XI” in all formats will feature his name.

The only question is how long it takes before Pakistan produces a better WK batsman than Mohammad Rizwan. I wouldn’t count on this happening in our lifetimes.
 
Rana said:
This guy gets to do whatever he wants, play wherever he wants, bats wherever he wants, remove whoever he wants from the squad to make sure he goes unchallenged.

Don’t cry about standards being too high for him.
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Has to play middle order in ODIs even though he’d rather open. Dropped from tests. Had to wait till a spot as opener came up in t20 which never would have happened if fakhar hadn’t done badly and Sharjeel got himself banned. Wasn’t given captaincy of any formats either once Babar stepped down. Dunno what power he has in selecting squad.

Sarfraz on the other hand was captain for a few years, had influence over the squad, where he wanted to bat. I don’t really remember him introducing competition for him as wicketkeeper either. In fact because of the declines of kamran and Sarfraz once established, Rizwan has faced greater competition for wicketkeeper as to not let the wicketkeeper get complacent. They are keeping guys like Sarfraz, haris, Azam around while Rizwan is keeper as alternatives/future. I do not remember any real competition when Sarfraz and kamran were there even when they were struggling for form.
 
Rizwan catch was brilliant - but then Sarfaraz can also take such catches -

Main test for me will be with the bat.
 
Stats Alert for the stastically minded.

Rizwan (9*) has now scored more runs than Sarf in both innings of the 1st Test.
 
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Rizwan is already doing his job. He took a stunning catch, and now has outscored his predecessor :)
 
Tight slap on the faces of those who were questioning Rizzu.

He was always the no.1 choice in my book any day of the week, any format of the game.
 
hitthestump said:
Rizwan hit chukka in Australia?

I guess it’s time to go on about this for the next 10 years
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Some people fantasising about Rizwan being bounced out in OZ. They were congratulating themselves on celebrating his dismissals in OZ.

I've not seen a player of ours hated in this way. But the level of hate he recieves is unparalleled.
 
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FearlessRoar said:
Rizwan in Test Cricket:

Pak-5/94 - scored 95 vs Aus in Aus
Pak-5/120-scored 72 vs Eng in Eng
Pak - 5/75-scored 53 vs Eng in Eng
Pak-5/52 scored 71 vs Nz in Nz -
Pak - 4/74 - scored 60 vs Nz in NZ
Pak-4/83 scored 61 vs NZ in NZ
Pak-4/63 - scored 115* vs SA in PAK

Evidently, Rizwan has played crucial innings for Pakistan in Test cricket during crisis situations.
Click to expand...

Once again Rizwan is back in business to rescue Pakistan from crisis. He stands at 29*(34) with Pakistan six wickets down on Day 2 of the second Test against Australia.
 
Jazx said:
Sarfaraz can still play as a batsman in this team as there are no bradmans warming the bench. But it would be even better if sarfaraz is benched in place of saim who can be the bright prospect in future. Still it will not make any difference to this series result but saim can be groomed for future.
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Play as a batter and were does he field ?
 
It was a no brainer who to play as the first choice keeper. Rizwan is the better keeper and batter. His Carey catch is being talked about everywhere on social media, even Australian media pages are talking about it.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
You know certain posters were making up fake songs and fantasising about Rizwan being bounced out in OZ. They were congratulating themselves on celebrating his dismissals in OZ.

I've not seen a player of ours hated in this way ever. Sure he's limited and could occasionally do with a boot up the backside so he doesn't get complacent. But the level of hate he recieves is unparalleled.
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Few months ago, Sarfraz got a concussion from a spinners ball, and they had to bring in Rizwan as he was the only other keeper. Rizwan would end up outscoring Sarfraz
 
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Sarfraz is miles ahead of Sarfraz as a keeper and is definitely better than Sarfraz in SENA as a batter.
 
Rizwan criticism at an all-time low. Wonder what he's done in this match so far? Ah yes....
 
BouncerGuy said:
Rizwan has improved his game in recent times. He is an automatic choice atm im white ball format although that is debatable. His inclusion in red ball is also okay beacuse who who we have in domestics as a backup?
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Absolutely.
There is a hilarious section in the latest Wisden cricket podcast where they’re discussing the never ending drama of Pakistani cricket, especially the inane shenanigans at the PCB.

Mark Butcher rightly said that one of the key issues is how badly Pakistan uses its key resource — its players. He specifically cited the stupidity of leaving out Rizwan from the first Test and playing Sarfraz.

We continue to remain a source of both ridicule and amusement (in equal measures) for observers and commentators of the game.

PS I can heartily recommend the podcast — they talk about both English cricket, but also what is going on around the world. They’ve had Saj on regularly as a guest to talk about Pakistan cricket.
 
shamaan said:
Play as a batter and were does he field ?
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This question should not arise at all, is there any qualification required to field at any position? Are the other pakistani fielders specialized for their fileding positions:LOL:
 
It's ridiculous to suggest that Rizwan should've always been in the side now that he has played well in this Test.

Rizwan was horrible for a while and Sarfraz replaced him to have an incredible series against NZ.

It would've been utterly unfair to leave Sarfraz out for the 1st test as Safraz clearly deserved to be in the team based on his NZ series.

However, once it became crystal clear in the Perth test that Sarfraz was going to be a sitting duck, it made sense to replace him with Rizwan.

Both the decision to play Sarfraz in the 1st Test and Rizwan in the 2nd Test were correct.
 
In one incomplete innings, Rizwan has managed to score more than 4x as much runs as Sarfraz scored in the entire first match and take a catch Sarfraz would have certainly dropped.

Ridiculous that Rizwan was not played in the first match. He’s one of the best wicket keepers in the world and a quality batsmen on top of that.
 
Some of the commentators on Rizwan:

Michael Vaughan: You need players who can take the opposition on...I'm surprised he didn't play [Rizwan] in the first test

Ian Smith: When I saw that Rizwan was not playing in the first match, I thought it was because he was injured. Instead, Pakistan went with the elder statesman
 
Michael Vaughan: "Shan Masood and Mohammad Rizwan have been the two batters who have put Australia under some pressure."
 
Pretty telling that every ex-cricketer involved with this series knows that Rizwan is one of the finest cricketers in Pakistan right now.

Most of us have known this for years. There are still small pockets who think that his exposure is coming any day now. Lol.

They can whine, moan and cry all they want. Rizwan is the greatest wicketkeeper batsman in the history of Pakistan. Fact.
 
He did decent. But felt like he could have scored something big today he was fairly comfortable and Jamal did his job at the other end well making sure he had someone to bat with which I didn’t expect.
 
Rizwan definatley showed that he should be the first choice now. Sarfaraz can can bat at home but in SENA? Not his cup of tea.
 
We know Riz is a good, solid batsman but his WK goes from the sublime to very average. At a crucial time he missed a catch of Smith. This on the face of it didn't look his catch but those of us that know our cricket knows that it was his catch. He didn't go for it and it cost us dearly. I pointed out back on the England tour in 2020 that he stands too far back. Someone needs to tell him because of him, the slips are also too far back and that's why the likes of Abdullah is taking( of not taking) his catches so low.
 
Mohammad Rizwan holds an average of 29.35 against pace bowlers in Test.

It appears that Rizwan encounters difficulties when facing short deliveries and bouncy pitches.
 
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Rizwan has the best average in SENA of any WK from Asia ever. The only one who has an average above 40.
 
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Rizwan get his 50 with a good strike rate. He is looking all comfortable atm and has negated the Aussie bowlers brilliantly.
 
Regardless of how Sarfraz had been batting, he shouldn't have been the first choice for the first test and shouldn't play another SENA test as a first choice. He's pretty good in Asia though.
 
adzzy786 said:
He got unlucky. It was a cracking ball, it’s his first game here,
Never faced or played on this type of this pitch with these bowlers. Give him a chance
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There's nothing wrong with this pitch , it doesn't have steep bounce of the previous 2 pitches and is actually a good surface to bat on.
 
mazkhan said:
There's nothing wrong with this pitch , it doesn't have steep bounce of the previous 2 pitches and is actually a good surface to bat on.
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Has he played any international games here before? You do realise it’s his first ever test? And first time he’s facing Australia?
 
BunnyRabbit said:
Regardless of how Sarfraz had been batting, he shouldn't have been the first choice for the first test and shouldn't play another SENA test as a first choice. He's pretty good in Asia though.
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We say that but just imagine they did that, and he failed. They did the right thing by playing Sarfi although we all know on these surfaces Riz is the better player
 
Excellent knock, real shame he fell into the short ball trap as a hundred was on.

People can criticise his T20 batting and on-field dramatics but he deserves to be our primary Test WK.
 
Bewal Express said:
We say that but just imagine they did that, and he failed. They did the right thing by playing Sarfi although we all know on these surfaces Riz is the better player
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The think tank needs to be strong minded and take brave decisions. Bowing down to a certain lobby may help get those idiots on their side temporarily but isn't going to do any benefit to the team.
 
BunnyRabbit said:
The think tank needs to be strong minded and take brave decisions. Bowing down to a certain lobby may help get those idiots on their side temporarily but isn't going to do any benefit to the team.
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I agree but although Rizs would have made more sense, Sarfis selection also made sense because he had capital behind him. Foe me the selection that has made no sense is Faheem and Sajid. One of the reasons are cricket has fallen away is that we don't play enough decent series to filter out the rubbish
 
Bewal Express said:
I agree but although Rizs would have made more sense, Sarfis selection also made sense because he had capital behind him. Foe me the selection that has made no sense is Faheem and Sajid. One of the reasons are cricket has fallen away is that we don't play enough decent series to filter out the rubbish
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The selection of Nawaz was actually worse than Sajid's. Sajid atleast has been playing FC cricket with reasonable form. But this new 80 overs declare FC rule in Pak is further going to butcher our chances of nurturing upcoming test spinners and pacers. The number of our injuries our players suffer in Australia (in last 2-3 tours), it's laughable. Abrar got injured before playing a test here.
Fahim has no bite in his bowling. His batting sparked briefly in 2021 (in tests) and afterwards he's done nothing with either bat or bowl. Whoever decided to pick Jamal over Fahim in the side should be applauded.
 
Shan did the right thing to play him instead of Sarfaraz. Rizwan has proven everybody wrong once again. He has been brilliant so far.
 
Today is the time for rizwan to become a superman of Pakistan

Surely that was a wise decision to pick him over sarfaraz
 
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