Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali named his pick who can replace Babar Azam as the captain of Pakistan and he is none other than Mohammad Rizwan.

Reports suggest that Mohammed Rizwan is now emerging as the front-runner likely to replace Babar, whose tenure as the white-ball captain seems to have almost come to an end. This has caused a stir resulting in fans and former cricketers giving in their opinion.

Basit Ali Endorses Rizwan For Pakistan Captaincy

Basit Ali has stepped in in support of Rizwan that is saying how he performed with Markhors as their captain and marked to be one of the true potentialities of the team. He gave the example of a match against the Stallions during the Champions One-Day Cup where Rizwan assessed the pitch conditions like no one else could. According to Basit, Rizwan’s pitch-testing capabilities are far superior than that of Babar and Test captain Shan Masood.

“The way Rizwan led the side, he proved there is no better skipper than him. He has shown it with his captaincy. He read the pitch; it is a big thing. Even Babar can’t do that. I am not even talking about Shan. If you don’t make him captain at this time, then it is a loss for Pakistan. This is the best time you should make Rizwan the captain,” Basit said on his YouTube channel.

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Champions Cup: Babar Azam Hits 5 Fours In An Over Against Markhors

It was the Stallions who took charge after setting their target at 231 when Rizwan brought Shahnawaz Dahani into bowl the eighth over.

Babar Azam batted out of his wits, hammering five consecutive boundaries off Dahani to take the Stallions to a great position at 47/1 and it seemed that this time he was well-set to chase down the total. However, Rizwan changed his plans and did not bowl Dahani, even one over, for whatever reason; instead, he reshuffled the bowlers, sending in both spinners and pacers, all for early breakthroughs.

A victory stump collapse started to manifest when Naseem Shah got Shan Masood out. The rest of the line of the Stallions then promptly tumbled before the team was bowled out for 105 in just 23.4 overs.

The rest of the Stallions batters then came crashing down in front of the spinners Zahid Mahmood and Salman Ali Agha, helping Markhors pull away to a huge 126-run victory.

Mohammad Rizwan’s Career

The right-handed wicket-keeper batter for Pakistan has played in all three formats. He is the third player to have scored centuries in all three formats. Currently, he plays for Multan Sultans in Pakistan Super League and also serves as the vice-captain of Pakistan’s Test cricket side. He started his professional career at Peshawar Panthers in the 2008 List-A and domestic T20 cricket campaign.

Rizwan’s International Debut

His debut in international career began with an ODI against Bangladesh on April 17, 2015, where he scored a dynamite 67 runs off 58 balls. He subsequently continued playing in his T20I debut on April 24, 2015, and made his Test debut on November 25, 2016, against New Zealand, scoring a golden duck in his first Test innings.

Despite a staggering debut, Rizwan was handed a central contract by the PCB in 2018 and led Pakistan to great success in that same year at the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

Maiden ODI Century Against Australia

At the fag end of the month of March 2019, he scored his maiden ODI century scoring 115 against Australia. Rizwan kept on impressing the selectors in the Test series played against England during July 2019, where he added 161 runs with two half-centuries. He was soon labeled as a core wicket-keeper in Test matches, and soon after that, he became Pakistan’s man of the Test series.

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Appointed As The Pakistan’s Test Captain Against New Zealand In 2020

Rizwan was appointed Pakistan Test side’s captain for the first Test against New Zealand in December 2020. He scored his first Test hundred and remained not out on 115 while playing against South Africa in February 2021. He was also declared player of the series in the same South Africa tour where he registered his maiden T20I century as well – an unbeaten 104 with 6 boundaries and 7 sixes. In this context, this was also a century that made Rizwan Pakistan’s first wicket-keeper batsman to score a T20I century and the second wicket-keeper batsman after Brendon McCullum in cricket history to do it with the bat in all formats.