Mohammad Rizwan had a disappointing outing in his first domestic red-ball appearance in Pakistan in six years.
Mohammad Rizwan disappoints on domestic first-class comeback in Pakistan
The wicketkeeper-batter, captaining Sui Northern, could score just 22 in the first innings of their President’s Trophy game against Oil and Gas. Batting first in the four-day game, his side were bowled out for 182, with spinner Asif Afridi picking up a six-wicket haul for Oil and Gas.
Rizwan walked out after Sui Northern were reduced to 50-3 and seemed to have stabilised the innings, adding 42 runs for the fourth wicket. But he couldn’t convert the start into a significant knock, falling for 22 off 41 to left-arm spinner Danish Aziz.
In reply to Sui Northern’s 182, Oil and Gas finished day one of the four-day match at 63-2. Their openers, Maaz Sadaqat and Imam-ul-Haq, gave them a solid start, adding 58 for the first wicket. But they lost two wickets in a space of five runs towards the fag end of the day, and are still 119 runs behind.
Match 26, Oil & Gas Development Company Limited vs Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited
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- Ball by ball Over
This was Rizwan’s first domestic red-ball innings in Pakistan since October 2019. The last time he took the field for a first-class match in Pakistan was for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the 2019/20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy game against Central Punjab.
The wicketkeeper-batter, then just one-Test old, scored 128 in the first innings of a high-scoring draw. That was his second consecutive hundred in the competition, prompting the Pakistan selectors to pick him for their Test team after a three-year hiatus for a tour to Australia.
Currently, Rizwan is coming off a highly disappointing first season in the Big Bash League. Playing for the Melbourne Renegades, he could score just 187 runs from 10 games at a dismal strike-rate of 102.74 with a high score of 41.
He hasn’t been part of the Pakistan T20I setup for over a year now, and was thus not selected in their T20 World Cup squad.
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