Rizwan backs Test openers, says Pakistan don’t play enough matches

Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan believes that the team’s openers need to be given a prolonged run before reaching a conclusion about their abilities.

While speaking at a press conference, Rizwan added that Pakistan don’t play enough matches in a Test series which makes it difficult to form a consistent team.     

“Our openers have performed well in the past but if you ask me, I say that we are playing just two Tests in every series, in recent times, whereas before we used to have three or five-match series. When you play such few Tests in a series, it’s not that easy to build-up a consistent team and so we really need to back our openers who are not performing to the level we are demanding from them,” said Rizwan.

It must be noted that Pakistan’s current openers have struggled to score runs against quality oppositions, in the recent past. Imran Butt has an average of 17.50 after eight Test innings, meanwhile Abid Ali has only one score of 50 plus in his last 12 Test innings.

The right-handed batsman was also optimistic about putting up a good show during the ongoing cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.

“When talking about the WTC, let me say it’s more important to see how we finish the Championship rather than worry about how we start it. Last time we didn't do too well but this time we have made a plan to do better and improve ourselves as there are 12 more matches in this, and hopefully we will do better in this Championship,” he said.

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Rizwan was also hopeful about winning the second Test against West Indies, starting tomorrow, after losing the first Test of the two-match series.

“Looking at the effort of in the first match of the series, you will see that we came in with the aim of winning the series but unfortunately, the result did not go our way. We were a little unlucky and also made same mistakes in our fielding but no one can say that we played with low energy or stopped believing in ourselves,” he said.

“The next game is very important for us, we won the T20I series and we will with the Almighty’s help level this series also,” he concluded.