
Since Pakistan have lost the second close encounter of the Super 12 round of the T20 World Cup 2022, the core batters Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam are in hot waters. More than the middle-order, the fanatics and experts find them as responsible, and to be specific, Rizwan.
They believe Rizwan is the reason for creating pressure on Azam, eventually getting him out. Targeting his slow approach to open the inning and rotate the strike, fans have lashed out at Rizwan, who often fails to rotate the strike.
Where other teams do magical batting in powerplays, Pakistan hardly cross their 30s which seems to have cost them on multiple occasions. For example, the score could have been much greater than 160 if the opening duo had performed against India.
Similarly, things would have ended in Pakistan’s favour had there been a solid opening from Babar and Rizwan. However, rather than believing both at mistakes, fans find Rizwan as the base reason for the failure of the skipper’s batting.
Doing some maths, the experts have also calculated and compared the captain’s batting average while opening with Fakhar Zaman and Rizwan. They have found the one with the left-handed batter sound, whereas the one with Rizwan is not up to the mark.
Here is how fans and experts share their feelings about once everyone’s favourite Mohammad Rizwan
A fan mentioned that he loves Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan; both do no wonders in the T20I powerplays.
As much as I love Babar and Rizwan their batting in powerplays is pathetic especially against Zimbabwe
— ☝🏾 (@ItzSpookySzn) October 27, 2022
A user wrote that the Babar Rizwan duo is to be blamed as a whole since they are pretending to be best but are not.
Babar and M Rizwan convincing us all that they are the 2 best t20 batsmen in the world is the biggest fraud in recent times.
— Haider Abbasi (@HaiderKAbbasi) October 27, 2022
One of the local journalists feels Rizwan is not best-suited to T20Is.
To accommodate Rizwan we ruined our entire T20 strategy. Because of him Babar is struggling. Because of him Fakhar was struggling. Because of him Azam Khan isn’t picked. And he repays us by failing at the most crucial time. Zero improvement on his technique. A bad investment.
— Haroon (@hazharoon) October 27, 2022
Another user pointed out Babar’s averages while batting with Fakhar and Rizwan.
Babar Azam's averages:
With Rizwan :
32.56 in 46 inningsWithout Rizwan :
56.71 in 43 innings#BabarAzam #Rizwan #Shoaibmalik #T20WC #PAKvZIM pic.twitter.com/oMsgBc0mGR— Muhammad Noman (@nomanedits) October 27, 2022
One of the fans hilariously trolled Babar and Rizwan for skipping warm-up matches so the middle-order can practice. However, they themselves have failed to deliver in the main round.
Babar and Rizwan didn't play warm-up match because middle order needed practice 😭😭
— Fakhruu :^) 🏏 (@BajwaKehtaHaii) October 28, 2022
Another local journalist has written that the slow intent at the opening wicket-keeping batter falls into, is destructive, which also puts pressure on Babar.
Rizwan in power play against India
12 balls 4 runs 11 dots
Today
16 balls 10 dots
It's not about his runs, it's about intent at the top which created pressure on Babar and others
— ٰImran Siddique (@imransiddique89) October 27, 2022
Statistician Mazher Arshad pointed out that Babar has a great batting average while opening the innings with Fakhar, while he averages only 32 while opening with Rizwan. He believes playing with Fakhar to open the innings eases pressure on Babar as the core batter, while playing with Rizwan’s approach puts him under pressure.
Fakhar stopped opening from 2021. But after that, there were four T20I matches where Babar didn't open with Rizwan and one match in which Rizwan didn't play.
Babar's scores in those 5 matches: 44 vs RSA, 50 vs RSA, 52 vs Zim, 51 vs WI and 87no vs Eng. That's an average of 71.— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) October 28, 2022
Also, see:
Shahid Afridi asks PCB not to bench Dahani
