Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan has opened up on his batting position in T20 cricket and said that he never refused to bat down the order.
The opening pair of Babar Azam and Rizwan was split in the T20I series against New Zealand with Saim Ayub partnering up with the wicketkeeper-batter.
While talking to a local sports channel, Rizwan shed light on recent discussions surrounding his batting order and how he is ready to do anything for Pakistan.
"I never refused to play one down. When I was asked, I said I am absolutely available," Rizwan stated.
"I even said that if I am needed for bowling, I am ready for that too, I can even leave my wicket-keeping.
"If you look at my career so far, in 26 matches, I have gone to bat at numbers 7, 8, and 9. No batsman has gone in at number 9, I have. I cannot say that I will not do this. I was ready before, and I am still ready now," he added.
Meanwhile, he also talked about his statement where he had said that splitting the pair of him and Babar has provided a dent to Pakistan.
“I was asked that if splitting my opening pair with Babar hurt Pakistan. Maybe I didn’t understand the question at that time, but I said it hurt Pakistan in the context that Pakistan had lost four matches. I did not say that it hurt Pakistan because we were split as an opening pair,” Rizwan stated.
"We understand what is best for Pakistan and who determines the best? The coach can see, the captain can see. If we talk about the New Zealand tour, even then Shaheen adopted a rotation policy, so that the best can be extracted from each player. We don't say that we made a mistake by going back and forth, but we can say that you should look at things logically, do things logically that are best for Pakistan," he concluded.
- Mohammad Rizwan
