Pakistan names Mohammad Rizwan as white-ball captain

PAKISTAN last Sunday (27) appointed Mohammad Rizwan as skipper for the white-ball tours of Australia and Zimbabwe, replacing Babar Azam who stepped down this month.

Rizwan, 32, had led Pakistan in two Tests on the tour of New Zealand in 2020 when Azam was injured, but has never captained the team in limited-over matches.

He will head a squad which includes Azam and Shaheen Shah Afridi, after both players were dropped from the last two Tests against England. Pakistan won that series 2-0 last Saturday (26).

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi announced the decision at a news conference in Lahore. “We consulted all the stakeholders before deciding Rizwan’s name as skipper for white-ball team,” he said.

Azam, who was appointed whiteball captain for the first time in 2019, stepped down after Pakistan’s disastrous first-round exit from the ODI World Cup in India last year.

However, he was re-appointed for a second time in March ahead of the T20I World Cup in the United States and West Indies – where Pakistan exited in the first round again, adding pressure on him to resign.

Rizwan, who debuted in whiteball cricket in 2015, has played 74 ODIs and 102 T20Is to date, scoring 5,401 runs with four centuries and accounting for 143 dismissals behind the stumps.

“It is an honour to lead Pakistan,” said Rizwan, who was also at the news conference. “We will fight hard to bring good results on the tours.”

Selectors said Azam and Shaheen will be rested for the limited-overs games against Zimbabwe next month.

Middle-order batter Salman Agha, who will be Rizwan’s deputy, will lead the T20I side in Zimbabwe as Rizwan is rested under a workload management plan.

Pakistan begin their Australia tour with three ODIs, in Melbourne (next Monday, 4), Adelaide (next Friday, 8) and Perth (next Sunday, 10).

That will be followed by three T20Is in Brisbane (November 14), Sydney (November 16) and Hobart (November 18).

All-rounders Aamer Jamal and Arafat Minhas, spinner Faisal Akram, wicketkeeper batsman Haseebullah and batsmen Irfan Khan and Saim Ayub have been selected for the first time in ODIs.

Likewise, all-rounders Jahandad Khan and Salman Agha have been selected for the first time in T20Is.

However, Rizwan will not have Gary Kirsten with him as Pakistan’s white-ball head coach after he resigned on Monday (28) after just six months in the job.

The PCB said the former South Africa Test player would be replaced by Test coach Jason Gillespie for the tour, in a statement offering no reason for Kirsten’s departure.

Media reports said both coaches had been unhappy after a recent PCB decision to shut them out of the squad selection process.Kirsten has made no public statement about his resignation.

In the past two years, Pakistan cricket has cycled through several coaches, three board heads, four captains and numerous formats of its domestic competition.

Analysts say the instability has sabotaged chances of success on the field. Last week’s 2-1 Test triumph over England was Pakistan’s first home series win since February 2021.

Kirsten played 101 Tests and 185 ODIs for South Africa between 1993 and 2004 before coaching India to win the 50-over World Cup in 2011.