Cricket Journey of Superstar of Cricket Pakistan Muhammad Rizwan

 Hello and a warm welcome to all our readers, we are going to take you on the journey of cricket of Pakistan's T20 sensation and one of the most dedicated and humble people none other than Muhammad Rizwan a true superstar and genius of the game. He is a religious and very humble person if cricket is the game of gentlemen then he is a true gentleman of the game.

Let's start our blog

Born Place

Muhammad Rizwan was born on 1st June 1992 in the capital city of KPK Peshawar in Pakhtoon Family. He got his early education from his hometown and the Pakistan cricket was at its peak days from 1992 to 1999 cricket was a very popular game in Pakistan, especially in the Northern Areas and Muhammad Rizwan was also inspired.

you can read also Cricket Journey of Babar Azam

Early Days in Cricket

He made his 1st class debut on December 28th,2008 against Abbottabad at his home ground Peshawar. He made his List A debut also at Peshawar Ground vs Islamabad Leopards on 12th March 2009. He made his T20 debut for Peshawar Panthers against Hyderabad Hawks at Qaddafi Stadium Lahore on 26th May 2009. After that, he became a permanent member of his domestic side with his wicket-keeping and batting performance he was a great accumulator of 1st class circuit with an average under just 50 and was doing consistently well but his trade with SNGPL turned his career in another way he scored his 1st double hundred in the final of Quaid-e- Azam Trophy to help his side to clinch the title. 

International Debut

After the dismal performance of Pakistan in the World Cup 2015 in Australia, the Pakistan team was in a huge crisis because Shahid Afridi and Pakistani Captain Misbah-ul-Haq retired after that event and Pakistan has to go on the tour of Bangladesh under the new Captain Azhar Ali. In that series, Rizwan got the opportunity and made the debut for Pakistan in the ODI series and he scored 67 from 58 balls while Pakistan was chasing a total of 330 and they lost the match But Muhammad Rizwan was the highest scorer in that match for his side.

He made his T20 debut in the same under the captaincy of Shahid Afridi but he couldn't get the chance to bat but Pakistan eventually lost that match also.

Rizwan made his test debut in Pakistan's tour of New Zealand in 2016 in 2nd test at Hamilton he was out on the golden duck against Neil Wagner.

Muhammad Rizwan

After that, he was out of the team and Sarfraz Ahmad come back to the side, in August 2018 he got the central contract from PCB for the 1st time. In March 2019 just before the World Cup Australia came to UAE to play the ODI series against Pakistan and Sarfraz Ahmad was rested so Rizwan cashed the opportunity and scored his 1st Hundred of the career 115 in 2nd ODI.

After Pakistan another disappointing performance in World Cup there were many questions on Sarfraz Ahmad and he was dropped after one series against Sri Lanka where the Sri Lankan team won the T20 series by 3-0 and Sarfraz Ahmad lost the captaincy and his place in the team also.

please read also Problems of England in test cricket

Come back is always bigger than set back

Pakistan was on the tour of Australia in November 2019 and Muhammad Rizwan was preferred over Sarfraz and he justified his place in that match also where he scored a career-defining 95 against the mighty Australian bowling lineup at Gabba. After that Rizwan didn't look back and just carry on from there. In June 2020 he was named in 29 members squad of Pakistan for the tour of England and that was great test series for him and he was the man of the series for Pakistan with scoring 161 runs with the bat. People said that Rizwan is not made for T20 cricket but he has made a mockery of it in 2021.

In December 2020 Muhammad Rizwan came as an opener in the last T20 against New Zealand in New Zealand and played a match-winning knock of 89 runs to win the match for his side and save Pakistan from whitewash after that the rest is history.

1st match as Captain

On the same tour of New Zealand Babar Azam got injured and was out of the tour meantime Rizwan got the chance to lead Pakistan in the longest format of cricket for the 1st time yes Pakistan couldn't win the match but he left a great impression with his bat.

In February 2021 South Africa toured Pakistan and Rizwan was the hero of that series he scored his 1 st test hundred to win a match for Pakistan and he was the player of the series also. In the same tour Rizwan scored his 1st T20 hundred also against South Africa, he scored 104 runs including 6 fours and 7 sixes and won the match for Pakistan. He was 1st wicketkeeper to score a 100 in T20 for Pakistan and 2nd in the world after Brandon MacCallum.

In April 2021 Pakistan was on the tour of South Africa and in 3rd T20 Babar and Rizwan made a record-breaking partnership of 197 in the chase which was the biggest opening partnership for Pakistan, later on, they added 3 more partnerships over 150 including the famous one against India in ICC T20 World Cup in Dubai. Cricket Pakistan is very lucky to have both of them.

Babar and Rizwan

.He played the semi-final against Australia despite spending 2 nights in ICU and scored a valuable fifty also which shows his dedication level. Babar and Rizwan redefined T20 cricket with their style of play normally t20 is the format of slogging and risky cricket but they have played it also in the orthodox fashion without taking any risk. By the end of 2021, Muhammad Rizwan is the most consistent T20 batsman where he scored over 1200 runs in International cricket and over 2000 runs in T20 cricket and he is 1st batter to do so. He became the no.1 T20 batter in ICC Rankings on 7th September 2022. So his Good time with the bat still continues and he is grabbing more and more records. 

Journey of PSL

Rizwan started his journey in PSL with Lahore Qalandars but after 2 seasons he was picked by Karachi Kings in 2020 he couldn't play a single match of PSL because they were having Chadwick Walton a wicket-keeper batsman and Rizwan couldn't find the place and the reason was that he is not a six-hitter. That hurt him badly and the next season he was picked by Multan Sultans and he replaced Shan Masood as captain also. Under his captaincy, Sultans just managed to win 2 matches in the 1st half in Karachi but in the 2nd half in Abu Dhabi, they managed to win 4 matches out of 5 and qualified for the playoffs. After that Multan won the 1st PSL Title under Rizwan's leadership and he was the 2nd highest run-getter after Babar Azam. In 2022 He continued his consistency with Shan Masood and got 2nd most runs after Fakhar Zaman. Under his captaincy, Multan Sultans became the 1st team to get 18 points in the league stage. Multan Sultans reached into the final but couldn't finish on the victory stand but that was another stamp of authority from the gentleman of cricket. So his good days in cricket continue and many more runs are to come.

Muhammad Rizwan in PSL final

Muhammad Rizwan's stats so far

stats by www.espncricinfo.com

Competition	Test	ODI	T20I	FC
Matches	19	41	53	99
Runs scored	972	864	1,514	5,395
Batting average	42.26	28.80	50.46	43.50
100s/50s	1/7	2/4	1/12	11/28
Top score	115*	115	104*	224
Catches/stumpings	52/2	37/1	30/7	279/17

sO THIS IS JUST THE START AND MANY MORE TO COME.
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