Which position should Mohammad Rizwan bat in T20Is?

[Saj]

Lots of debate regarding what position Mohammad Rizwan should bat in T20Is.

He's doing very well as an opener but some feel he should be batting down the order, but there again others feel he shouldn't even be in the T20I team.

Thoughts?

 

[TheNightWatchman]

Opener. And he should be opener in the ODIs too.
Bats at a good pace. Much needed stability at the top of the order.
The Babar Rizwan combo is the new Sachin Saurav change my mind.

 

[Ab Fan]

Rizwan should open in both ODIs and T20s.

 

[Attiq_Lone]

In my opinion he is quite good at any position: His opening stint alongside babar seems to be problematic and as Babar is quite good in the powerplay, Babar should open alongside Fakhar. Rizwan at 3 can be destructive.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

Rizwan and Fakhar should open with Babar at 3.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

The ones who feel he shouldn't be in the T20 team cannot be taken seriously. They will tell you that they would be happy if Rizwan proves them wrong, but fact is Rizwan has already proven them wrong.

 

[Saj]

13 votes so far.

All saying the same thing.

 

[ataullah]

Rizwan opening in ODI's would bring better balance to the side and he would be a better fit than Imam eventhough Imam is a valuable ODI member of Pak team. Imagine:

Rizwan
Fakhar
Babar
Haris/Saud
Haider

Imam
Fakhar
Babar
Rizwan
Haider

Which is better for ODI? I feel Rizwan opening is far better.

 

[Hasan123]

Opening is the only position he fits. Hafeez and Haider are 4 and 5. 6 is too low for him.

He has excelled as an opener. So that's his position for me.

 

[Sunzi]

People keep saying he's an accumulator and I agree but that isn't to say that, that is the extent of his quality. The six he hit yesterday was a ridiculous shot and arguably one of the shots of the match.

I'm sure fans saw some of his knocks during the PSL - he can be destructive aswell without throwing it away.

I believe he had 297 runs in 5 innings at a S/R of 140 with 176 of those scored in boundaries - his T20I form hasn't been too dissimilar. That's not a slow player IMO.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

Shouldn’t be in the T20 team once Azam Khan gets lean.

England have a similar player like Rizwan in Sam Billings, he can’t get into the team because he can’t play as a lower order power hitter, and he can’t open because England have too many better options. It’ll be the same scenario once Azam Khan gets lean, and when Sharjeel takes back his spot as opener.

However, he’s our most valuable player in ODI’s and Tests and he should be made captain of both of those formats.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

Shouldn’t be in the T20 team once Azam Khan gets lean.

England have a similar player like Rizwan in Sam Billings, he can’t get into the team because he can’t play as a lower order power hitter, and he can’t open because England have too many better options. It’ll be the same scenario once Azam Khan gets lean, and when Sharjeel takes back his spot as opener.

However, he’s our most valuable player in ODI’s and Tests and he should be made captain of both of those formats.

You make it sound like Lean Azam Khan is Jos Butler when he hasn't played a single international game and his only experience is PSL and T10 leagues. And for some reason Sharjeel is made out to be some Gilchrist level destroyer.
Rizwan is the 2nd best batsman in the team and should never be taken out.

 

[Markhor]

I'd like to see two aggressive openers in Fakhar and Sharjeel opening, with Babar and Rizwan as your insurance in the middle order.

However you cannot change Rizwan's position given the form he's currently in. Whilst he'll face stronger bowling attacks in the next year, he has improved his powerhitting a lot.

Before he used to be so imbalanced and lost his shape completely trying to hit the ball - think back to the last tour of South Africa in 2018/19. And that was reflected in his white ball numbers which were frankly diabolical. It's a marked contrast now.

 

[YousafTheBeast]

You make it sound like Lean Azam Khan is Jos Butler when he hasn't played a single international game and his only experience is PSL and T10 leagues. And for some reason Sharjeel is made out to be some Gilchrist level destroyer.
Rizwan is the 2nd best batsman in the team and should never be taken out.

If a fat unhealthy burger munching Azam Khan can smash the ball out the park and also run 3’s then just imagine what a lean Azam Khan could do. Azam Khan is a better power hitter than Rizwan, and he’s only 22. Give him 2-3 years of exposure in PSL and he’ll be similar to where Pant is right now.

 

[Prince of Pakistan]

Pakistan has a luxury problem and Rizwan looks most effective opening the batting in T20's.

The only issue at times Rizzy has that he doesn't utilize the powerplays as one would expect T20 openers to do. How do you solve this? Balance the equation. To Help out Rizwan open with Sharjeel.

So in the end Pak might look like this in World T20 India:

Sharjeel
Rizwan
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Haider Ali

Fakhar is one of the best against spin and will keep the RR up during overs 6-12. Babar has to stay till the end while Hafeez and Haider take up the finishing role. This way Rizwan won't be under that much pressure to score and could adjust his role during the innings on the basis of his batting partner.

 

[hitthestump]

Opener with someone like Zaman or Sharjeel.

The only reason you can even debate his position is because he's too similar to Babar at the top of the order. The obvious solution is to move Babar to one down and allow Rizwan a bit of breathing room early on in his innings.

 

[hitthestump]

Pakistan has a luxury problem and Rizwan looks most effective opening the batting in T20's.

The only issue at times Rizzy has that he doesn't utilize the powerplays as one would expect T20 openers to do. How do you solve this? Balance the equation. To Help out Rizwan open with Sharjeel.

So in the end Pak might look like this in World T20 India:

Sharjeel
Rizwan
Fakhar
Babar
Hafeez
Haider Ali

Fakhar is one of the best against spin and will keep the RR up during overs 6-12. Babar has to stay till the end while Hafeez and Haider take up the finishing role. This way Rizwan won't be under that much pressure to score and could adjust his role during the innings on the basis of his batting partner.

I think i agree that we have to find a way to shoe in our 6 best batsmen somehow regardless of whether they are in their best position or not. For example i think Haider lacks game awareness for number 6 and would be better opening but there's just nowhere else to put him.

My only change would be to swap Babar and Fakhar. Babar is the best T20 batsman in the world and he needs to face as many overs as possible. Fakhar really ought to be up the order too given the form he's in but someone has to make way and he's probably the unfortunate one that has to.

 

[AZulfi]

I think Pakistan should open with Fakhar in T20Is

Rizwan or Babar should bat at one down

 

[Greenstorm]

e should play as specialist keeper who can be sent in early if there is a collapse or if its a turning wicket.

I know Rizwan is in flavour these days but we should remember that he was playing a match losing innings till he was gifted with three full tosses. We cannot afford to have two accumulators opening the innings against teams that have better bowlers than Magala ! This is not feasible in ODIs, let alone T20Is and goes to show how outdated our approach is in modern day cricket.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mohammad Rizwan in T20Is in 2021:<br><br>Innings 4<br>Runs 271<br>Balls faced 185<br>Strike-rate 146.48<br>Average 135.50<br>Fifties 2<br>Hundreds 1<br>Fours 26<br>Sixes 12<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cricket?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cricket</a> <a href="https://t.co/LgKIR84qrS">pic.twitter.com/LgKIR84qrS</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/1381318339876823041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[ahmedzee]

Rizwan is in hot form. He should open along with Fakhar.

Babar should bat at 3

Haider at 4

Hafeez at 5

Ifti/Khushdil/Sohaib/or anyone else at 6

 

[HussainZ]

Rizwan is in hot form. He should open along with Fakhar.

Babar should bat at 3

Haider at 4

Hafeez at 5

Ifti/Khushdil/Sohaib/or anyone else at 6

I think Babar should continue opening as his strike rate is quite good during powerplays but he slows down during overs 7-14. Rizwan on the other hand takes 10-12 balls to get his eye in but his SR gets better gradually and he's not so dependent on powerplays to hit boundaries.

Fakhar
Babar
Rizwan

This should be our top 3

 

[ritzy_123]

I think Rizwan mentally at the moment is really comfortable with His opening position which is beneficial for the team.

Babar needs to come at no. 3 and let Fakhar and Rizwan for the opening slot.

 

[shehzi]

Because of this current form as opener, looks odd to say that he should not open. But his batting style doesn't suit him to be in t20 team, tries too hard to play big shots. Sharjeel and Babar opener.
I know I will sound weird now but once his form goes away, he will put alot of pressure on other opening batsman.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

Opener. And he should be opener in the ODIs too.
Bats at a good pace. Much needed stability at the top of the order.
The Babar Rizwan combo is the new Sachin Saurav change my mind.

Change my mind

 

[srh]

Misbah should move Rizwan to middle order in T20Is

Middle order is in absolute shambles. Drop Asif Ali for good and move Rizwan to middle order to stabilize middle order. Open with Sharjeel and Babar.

Lets hope Misbah realize this. Babar is a dummy captain and all decisions are taken by Misbah so this post is addressing Misbah.

 

[Rana]

Very risky

Because he is clueless in the middle order and isn’t afforded the time to settle in and get in with it unlike the first 2 overs in a T20 innings where he can kick start in the 3rd.

Sending him in the middle could eventually lead to him being replaced by Sarfaraz or maybe even Azam Khan...who are definitely more reliable middle order bats than he is for sure

 

[Last Monetarist]

Very risky

Because he is clueless in the middle order and isn’t afforded the time to settle in and get in with it unlike the first 2 overs in a T20 innings where he can kick start in the 3rd.

Sending him in the middle could eventually lead to him being replaced by Sarfaraz or maybe even Azam Khan...who are definitely more reliable middle order bats than he is for sure

How does this opinion square with the following?

Why can’t you simply understand. We do have a chance to play the right type of team as long as we actually try and set up in the right way and not the misbah way.

A middle order of Babar, Hafeez and Rizwan is so much more reliable than a middle order of Fakhar, Hafeez and Danish Aziz

Just play the right players in the right positions and you will see a much better performance at least in the middle order.

Fakhar
Sharjeel
Babar
Hafeez
Rizwan
Imad
Faheem

V

Babar
Rizwan
Fakhar
Hafeez
Danish
Asif
Faheem

Who do you honestly favour?

 

[Rana]

How does this opinion square with the following?

What else do you want me to say?

You people will not accept me saying Rizwan shouldn’t even be in the team.

 

[shamaan]

He should open that's the only position he can bat.if he doesn't bat in the opening spot then he should be replaced.

 

[Last Monetarist]

What else do you want me to say?

You people will not accept me saying Rizwan shouldn’t even be in the team.

Mate, stick to your guns. There's nothing wrong in having an opinion that Rizwan shouldn't be in the T20 team. People can choose to agree or disagree, what does it matter?

 

[Abdurmirr]

Very risky

Because he is clueless in the middle order and isn’t afforded the time to settle in and get in with it unlike the first 2 overs in a T20 innings where he can kick start in the 3rd.

Sending him in the middle could eventually lead to him being replaced by Sarfaraz or maybe even Azam Khan...who are definitely more reliable middle order bats than he is for sure

Jeez why do you hate the guy?

Pretty sad that you beg for the inclusion of an overweight fixer who for the record did pretty poorly in this years PSL against 3rd class bowling line ups yet you campaign aggressively for the removal of our best batsman over the past year. Plus he is a utility in the field and a decent human being but hey I guess a shameless match fixer is your cup of tea

 

[Rana]

Mate, stick to your guns. There's nothing wrong in having an opinion that Rizwan shouldn't be in the T20 team. People can choose to agree or disagree, what does it matter?

I need to be realistic also. Me having an opinion of Rizwan not being in the team is meaningless even though he is firing every other game as an opener. He won’t get dropped just because there are actual T20 openers in the set up who can take more advantage of the powerplay. So realistically, If you do bring in those openers, you still have to play Rizwan who tbf has earned a spot in the XI unlike others.

But that’s when you enter dangerous territory for his own sake, because we have all seen how he isn’t as free flowing in the middle as he is up top. That’s why I said it’s very risky to move him into the middle order. But I can’t disagree with my personal instincts and temptations of trying the Fakhar+Sharjeel combination.

 

[Last Monetarist]

I need to be realistic also. Me having an opinion of Rizwan not being in the team is meaningless even though he is firing every other game as an opener. He won’t get dropped just because there are actual T20 openers in the set up who can take more advantage of the powerplay. So realistically, If you do bring in those openers, you still have to play Rizwan who tbf has earned a spot in the XI unlike others.

But that’s when you enter dangerous territory for his own sake, because we have all seen how he isn’t as free flowing in the middle as he is up top. That’s why I said it’s very risky to move him into the middle order. But I can’t disagree with my personal instincts and temptations of trying the Fakhar+Sharjeel combination.

I tend to agree that Rizwan will probably not do well in the middle order, as we have seen in 50-over cricket, given that he's a slow starter and is liable to waste precious deliveries when the team is ideally looking to increase momentum in the innings.

However, I don't mind him opening the batting as long as the other opener isn't Babar Azam, who is too similar in method and impact. The two definitely don't complement each other as an opening partnership.

As to your point about there being better alternatives to Rizwan, I disagree. Azam Khan is an embarrassment to sportsmen around the world, while Sarfraz Ahmed is finished as an international class batsman. Perhaps, Rohail Nazir needs to be groomed as Rizwan's understudy, but the team's selection policies are far from ideal.

 

[Abdurmirr]

Wow all of Pakistan's faults can be traced to Rizwan according to posters. I think the hate towards him goes to show why we deserve today's loss.

 

[Canistani Hero]

I would bat him at 3. Rizwan can accelerate better than Babar. Fakhar opening gives Babar time to get into his zone.

 

[Saj]

You have your best 2 batsmen opening at the moment.

The problem is if they are out early, then you know that 99 times out of a 100 none of the other batsmen will stand up and take responsibility.

But on the other hand, you want your best batsmen to face as many deliveries as possible.

Tough call.

 

[srh]

Wow all of Pakistan's faults can be traced to Rizwan according to posters. I think the hate towards him goes to show why we deserve today's loss.

problem is Pakistan is not playing their master blaster Sharjeel in playing 11. They need Sharjeel as an opener.

 

[Titan24]

You have your best 2 batsmen opening at the moment.

The problem is if they are out early, then you know that 99 times out of a 100 none of the other batsmen will stand up and take responsibility.

But on the other hand, you want your best batsmen to face as many deliveries as possible.

Tough call.

Yes definitely a tough call. Both of them just had a record partnership vs SA few days ago but, at the same time Pak middle order struggles just dont seem to end. There can definitely be an argument for atleast one of them to move down as they are used to batting in middle order in other formats but, then again that wont be an easy call considering how both have them has performed as that would be changing something that is working to fix something that is broke. In the top order atleast there are a couple of options unlike middle order so that can be an argument for one of them to move down.

 

[Saj]

Yes definitely a tough call. Both of them just had a record partnership vs SA few days ago but, at the same time Pak middle order struggles just dont seem to end. There can definitely be an argument for atleast one of them to move down as they are used to batting in middle order in other formats but, then again that wont be an easy call considering how both have them has performed as that would be changing something that is working to fix something that is broke. In the top order atleast there are a couple of options unlike middle order so that can be an argument for one of them to move down.

Maybe Rizwan and Fakhar/Sharjeel to open and Babar at 3 would be a little bit more 'secure'.

 

[Canistani Hero]

problem is Pakistan is not playing their master blaster Sharjeel in playing 11. They need Sharjeel as an opener.

Sharjeel does very little to inspire confidence. He should atleast try to rotate the strike and then muscle it out, he tries to go big every ball and wastes alot of dot balls. Granted once he gets to 25-30 he is unstoppable but getting there is the big challenge..

 

[criclover2311]

At three is best, with Fakhar and Babar opening, Rizwan can unlike Babar can hit few out of park so Babar would be more suited to power play, and since he takes time to settle in, No.3 can give him that time plus the benefit of not wasting powerplay. He can play anchor role if Babar gets out or accelerate if Fakhar gets out. Since we've seen the need of either Fakhar/Sharjeel in powerplay, one of Babar or Riz has to come to three, and Rizwan is better option than Babar to be at three, a.) b/c he takes time to settle in hence wasting powerplay unlike Babar who is natural player of gaps and pace so we cant keep Babar out of PP b.) Unlike Babar Rizwan does not depends on powerplay for his game, he can hit out of park with innovative shots.

 

[MenInG]

Think its clear where he does the best in T20IS

 

[srh]

He is slow in power play, Babar is also slow in power play, Pakistan need aggressive batsmen in power play