Image Credit- X
Mohammad Rizwan, the wicketkeeper and batter for
Pakistan, has stated that the squad has suffered as a result of him and Babar
Azam’s strong opening partnership ending in T20Is. His remarks were made
following Pakistan’s 4th consecutive loss to New Zealand on Friday in their
five-match series. Thanks to an unbeaten 90-run knock from Rizwan, Pakistan
scored 158 for five in 20 overs in the fourth Twenty20 International. In reply,
New Zealand rode half-centuries from Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell to take
a 4-0 lead in Christchurch, despite losing early wickets.
The collaboration between Babar and Rizwan has been
crucial for Pakistan over the last few years. But once Babar decided to resign
as captain, the team had a lot of on- and off-field adjustments.
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.
“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.