Records tumble as Star batter Mohammad Rizwan scores another 50 in T20I

F.P. Report

CHRISTCHURCH: Pakistan’s top order batter Mohammad Rizwan added multiple T20 records to his credit on Friday with his innings of 78 from 50 deliveries against Bangladesh in the opening game of the triangular series in New Zealand.

Rizwan had smashed two sixes and stroked seven shots to the fence in his unbeaten innings which took his overall T20 runs tally in the calendar year 2022 past 1,500.

He is the only third batter in the world to score 1,500 or more T20 runs in a calendar year. Two others are Chris Gayle and Rizwan’s countryman Babar Azam.

Gayle had amassed 1,532 and 1,665 in years 2012 and 2015 respectively while Babar had a total tally of 1,607 in 2019 and 1,779 in 2021.

Rizwan who had scored total of 2,036 T20 runs last year, has so far scored 1,519 runs this year in overall professional games of the shortest format.

This was Rizwan’s 58th T20 international innings and the score of 78 has taken him ahead of Babar in the list of most aggregate runs after 58 T20I innings.

Rizwan has an aggregate of 2,337 runs from 58 international innings in T20s while Babar at this stage had 2,281 runs. India’s Virat Kohli had 2,012 runs from the initial 58 innings of his T20I career.

Rizwan has also surpassed England’s Jos Buttler in the list of players scoring the most runs as designated wicketkeeper in T20Is.

Of his 2,337 runs, the star player scored 2,196 runs as a wicket-keeper in T20Is. He surpassed Buttler today when he took the second run of his inning. The English cricketer has scored 2,119 runs as a wicket-keeper batter.

Rizwan has only four innings as a non-wicket-keeper in T20Is in which he scored 141 runs.