Drama makes everything interesting. In sports too, success stories become humane and gain depth when they have a saga of struggle and failure stapled to them.
Some of the most memorable moments in cricket have arrived when a player who was doomed and had no hope left, rose to the top and surprised everyone with his sensational comeback, and wicket-keeper batsman Muhammad Rizwan has proved it.
A brilliant unbeaten century by in-form Mohammad Rizwan guided Pakistan to a nail-biting three-run victory over South Africa in the first of the three T20 matches at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday night. Let’s have a look into Muhammad Rizwan’s comeback story.
Rizwan’s record-breaking match
Rizwan scored his maiden century of T20I career against South Africa, as he hit 104 runs off 64 balls, with the help of 6 fours and 7 sixes. The records he made in this match:
Mohammad Rizwan became the first wicketkeeper from Pakistan to score a century in T20 Internationals. He also registered the highest score by a wicketkeeper from Pakistan in T20Is.
He also joined former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum in an exclusive list of wicketkeepers to have scored a century in all three formats of cricket – Test, ODI and T20I. He also became the first wicket-keeper in T20I cricket to hit a century against South Africa.
Rizwan became the fifth wicketkeeper in the world to hit a century in T20I cricket. The other wicket-keepers in this list are Brendon McCullum, Mohammad Shahzad, Morne van Wyk and Leslie Dunbar.
The fall of Rizwan
After making his first-class debut in 2008, he had to wait quite a while before he would play his first match of every format for Pakistan.
He was asked to represent Pakistan for the first time in ODIs and T20Is in April 2015 on the tour of Bangladesh. The only thing to remember from that series is that he didn’t play as a wicketkeeper-batsman, but only as a specialist batsman.
Pakistan went on to lose the three-match ODI series and the lone T20I. Rizwan put up performances with the bat and impress in the field, but his place in the team was in danger because of the presence of an in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed.
As fate would have it, Sarfaraz’s rise came at the time when Rizwan was still finding his feet in the national squad in the year 2015. Sarfraz was destined to permanently fill the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman and Rizwan stayed out.
The rise
Many would give up the hope after being drop from the national side, but Rizwan’s recent form has shown that he wasn’t just waiting for a chance, he was itching for it.
Since the arrival of Misbahul Haq in the management role, the days of Sarfaraz ended and the time of Rizwan started. Sarfaraz was sacked from captaincy from all formats after a dismal showing in the very first series after Misbah came in.
Rizwan replaced him and was made the number one choice for the wicketkeeper-batsman role and as soon as it happened, everyone called it a biased decision. However, Rizwan has now proven all those allegations wrong.
Rizwan’s unbeaten T20 century proved that he isn’t on the team because of nepotism. Since his return to the national side, Rizwan has played match-saving innings on multiple occasions in all three formats.
In Tests, his recent 133 in the second innings against South Africa in the second Test, is the best thing ever happened to him. However, it was his scores of 71 and 60 in first and second innings respectively against New Zealand in the first Test, which helped him gather the respect from everyone.
The justification
Rizwan is having the best week of his cricketing career. Rizwan’s return in the Pakistan team at the cost of Sarfaraz seemed unfair in the start, but he has justified with the recent performances that he deserves to be chosen over the former captain.
This fact may still be painful for Sarfaraz’s fans, but if they want Pakistan to lift trophies, they would want to see Rizwan and not Sarfaraz behind the wickets in this year’s World T20.
