The former chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Inzamam ul Haq, says that Mohammad Rizwan is completely useless as a finisher and he shall be dominating top-order of the batting line-up.
He says choosing Rizwan was a critical choice for a three-match Test series although has praised his wicketkeeping skills. Inzamam believes to see the best of Rizwan, the management shall pick him for the top-order.
Mohammad Rizwan is completely useless down the order: Inzamam ul Haq
“I am happy that they [rewarded] Rizwan for his Test match form. Picking Rizwan was still a difficult choice to make [even though] his wicketkeeping was already brilliant,” the former Pakistan captain said.
“We weren’t able to see his batting though. In order to see the best version of Rizwan as a batsman, they’d have to send him to bat up the order.
The former chief selector has marked his words concluding giving priority to Sarfaraz Ahmed over Rizwan as a middle-over wicketkeeping batsman.
“If you don’t play him in top order then he’d be completely useless. Lower down the order, Sarfaraz Ahmed is more effective than Rizwan.”
His performance is never too disappointing. The player has impressed classically with his batting in all three matches played against England so far. Despite all these, he has received criticism on many stages. After the eye-catching performance, he seems to fix his place in the national test squad which might be a threat for Sarfaraz Ahmed. He averages 35.1 featuring in only 13 innings of 9 matches with 386 runs.
It is to be noted that after Sarfaraz was sacked off from captaincy in 2019, he was later eliminated from the playing XI of all formats. The wicket-keeping batsman, since then, had been selected in the sixteen-men-squad for the three-match test series but did not get a chance to feature in the playing XI. After Sarfaraz’s replacement’s bombastic performances, it would be hard for him to remake his place in the red-ball format. Also, if T20I squad witnesses Rizwan, Sarfaraz’s shorter-format career might be in trouble as well.
