Mohammad Rizwan double century: 200 not out in Quaid-e-Azam Trophy
Dropped after England, Rizwan made an unbeaten 200 for Peshawar, his first first-class double hundred in 12 years. What it means for his Test place.
Mohammad Rizwan has answered the only way a dropped player can. The wicketkeeper-batter finished unbeaten on 200 for Peshawar Region Blues against Faisalabad Region in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Gold at the Abbottabad Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, 4 November, with 35 fours and a six.
It is only the second double hundred of his first-class career, and the first since he made 224 in 2014. It also comes days after the Pakistan Cricket Board cleared him to go back to domestic cricket, and soon after he was left out of the Test squad for the Sri Lanka series.
The innings
Rizwan walked in at 127 for three on the first day and was 111 not out overnight. He and Najab Khan (133) added 246 for the fourth wicket, and then he put on an unbroken 130 with Muhammad Haris, who was 70 not out. Peshawar resumed day two at 306 for three and declared at 503 for four in 115.2 overs, with Rizwan on 200.
By stumps, Faisalabad were 118 for two in reply, with Mohammad Adnan taking both wickets.
It is his 16th first-class century. Before this match his only competitive outing since England was a President’s Trophy game last month, where he scored 64 and 27.
Why this innings matters
Rizwan was one of seven players sent home after Pakistan lost the second Test at Lord’s in August. He made just 61 runs in four innings in that series. He is also still under investigation by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) over off-field matters linked to the tour, which is a separate question from his batting.
He has played 47 Tests since his debut in 2016, scoring 2,682 runs at an average of 37.77 with three hundreds and 14 fifties.
Can he get back for Sri Lanka?
Not for the first Test. Pakistan play Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi from 9 November and in Lahore from 17 November, and the squad has already been picked. Head coach Mike Hesson has asked for fast pitches for both games and is looking at a new opening pair, with Azan Awais and Abdullah Fazal in the frame, according to media reports.
What a big domestic score does is make the next selection meeting harder. A wicketkeeper who can bat for a day is exactly what Pakistan lacked in England, and Rizwan has just shown he still can. His fate now depends as much on the NCCIA inquiry as on runs.
On the same day, Babar Azam was also playing in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, on Hesson’s advice, to find his own form before the Tests.
