"Nuksaan Hua Hai...": Mohammed Rizwan's Honest Admission On 'Opening Split' With Babar Azam

Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan has suggested that breaking his successful opening pair with Babar Azam in T20Is has negatively affected the team. His comments came after Pakistan suffered a 4th straight defeat in the five-match series against New Zealand on Friday. In the fourth T20I, Pakistan scored 158 for five in 20 overs courtesy an undefeated 90-run knock from Rizwan. In response, New Zealand, despite losing early wickets, rode on half-centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips to go 4-0 up in Christchurch.

Over the past couple of years, Babar and Rizwan's partnership has proved to be key for Pakistan. However, following Babar's decision to step down as captain, the team has gone through a host of changes on and off-the-field.

The new opening partnership of Saim Ayub and Rizwan hasn't worked out well from the team.

"You can say that it [breaking the opening pair] has hurt (nuksaan hua hai) Pakistan. I can say that Babar bhai has a big heart. We both agreed that there is no issue [in splitting the opening pair]. We both told the management that they can try whatever combination they want. The difficulty arises when you break things that were already working well. However, management is looking at what can be extracted best from different combinations," Rizwan was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

However, Rizwan hinted that him and Babar might open together in the future.

"The whole nation thought we had a good thing (partnership) going at the top of the batting order. But the management is working on the best that can be achieved from this team. Hafeez and Shaheen never said they we won't ever partner up at the top in future. They are trying different combinations and looking for the best," he added.

So far, Rizwan has notched up scores of 25, 7, 24 and 90 not out. Babar, on the other hand, scored half-centuries in the first three games before failing to get a big knock in the last game.

The fifth and final T20I of the series will take place in Christchurch on Sunday.

Topics mentioned in this article

Pakistan Cricket Team New Zealand Cricket Team Babar Azam Mohammad Rizwan Cricket