Image Source- ICC
For someone who, by certain simple but compelling
standards, is perhaps the best ODI No. 4 in the world, there has only been
place for an unsatisfactory kind of meh between admiration for Pakistan’s top
three and sorrow over a non-performing middle order over the past few months.
Mohammad Rizwan has been hiding in plain sight for the
most of Pakistan’s ODI journey over the past four years, which is peculiar in
and of itself because Rizwan is never hidden on the pitch. Every ball of an
inning, he is there with his flawless glovework, talkative rather than chirpy.
Then there is the batting, where Babar Azam is the only Pakistani batsman to
have faced more balls in ODIs this year. Yes, there is also the sideshow of the
cramping and the acting, which has been the cricketer’s most casual admission
since Imran Khan acknowledged using bottle caps for ball tampering in his book.
Rizwan is typically tough to ignore, but in ODIs it
has been happening despite his record since March 2019, which indicates he
absolutely should not be going ignored. Ben Stokes, despite his main character
intensity, hasn’t really been a major character in England’s ODI cricket these
past few years. Aiden Markram provides terrifying power and a higher ceiling of
explosiveness.
However, Rizwan is the only batter among teams
competing in this event who averages 50 or more at a strike rate of 90 or more,
despite the extremely low cut-off of more than 10 innings in that time. Despite
the small sample size, he is already surpassing Pakistan records at his
position. These really seem to be startling statistics. Although good, has he
always been this good?
But he has regularly stayed out of sight, sometimes
getting swept into the praise of a brilliant top order and other times getting
caught up in the problems of the middle. This top three, which consists of
Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, and Babar, has a tendency to consume a lot of air in
recent years, both literally in terms of the number of balls faced and
figuratively in terms of the accolades it receives for being so successful. The
middle order below Rizwan has behaved in the exact opposite manner.
It takes skill to play well in the ODI No. 4 spot.
Before the tenth over, you might be facing new quick bowlers with a hard new
ball, preventing an early catastrophe. Or, in the 30th over, you can be coming
in prepared to freewheel from a strong platform against spinners or change
bowlers with a softer ball. You might be able to play with all three powerplay
fielding limitations. Rizwan would seem to be made for it, expected to do
exactly the kind of things he’s done this year, as a successful opener in T20s
and a capable No. 6 in Tests (until at least he was cruelly dropped at the
start of the year).
And the next match is the kind where there will be
nowhere to hide, in front of 100,000 people in the stadium and tens of millions
around the world. Which, if we know nothing else about Rizwan we know at least
this much, is exactly as he likes it.