In a veiled attack, Mohammad Amir has seemingly hit out at Mohammad Rizwan for his comments on how breaking his opening partnership with Babar Azam in T20Is has hurt Pakistan.
Rizwan and Babar have started 51 T20I innings together, scoring 2,400 runs at an average of 48.97. They were the only pair to top the team in scoring more than 500 runs with an 800+ stand. However, batting average was often a point of contention, as both players usually hit sparingly.
Ahead of the New Zealand T20I, the management decided to change the starting pair after three years, moving up Saim Ayub alongside Rizwan instead and Babar taking a step back. Team director Mohammad Hafeez reportedly told the former captain that he would no longer be considered an opener in this format.
The couple Ayub and Rizwan has not achieved the desired result yet. In the four T20Is against New Zealand, he scored 69 runs at an average of 17.25, but his batting average of 8.44 was slightly higher than the 7.92 posted by Rizwan and Babar. Ayub and Rizwan had the highest opening stand of 33 in his first T20I, after which he scored 8, 23 and 5 in the partnership. Pakistan lost all his four matches in the series.
After the defeat in the 4th T20I, Rizwan said that defeating the first pair was a blow for Pakistan. “You could say (the collapse of the opening pair) hurt Pakistan,” he said in the post-match press conference. “I’ve already said that there will be consequences at some point.”
“As far as the opening pair is concerned, we have spoken to the management, the captain and Hafeez bhai and all I can say is that Babar has a big heart. That’s it. We both agreed that it’s okay and that you should try whatever you want to try.
“The hard part is when you break things and the people of Pakistan only see that management tried the experiment and it worked.”
What has Mohammad Amir said?
Amir has now clearly criticized Rizwan, saying he has enjoyed playing in the top flight for four years and would not give the 21-year-old Ayub four games to cement his place. However, Amir did not mention who the tweet was addressed to and instead used “bhai he jaan [brother]” but from his comment it is Rizwan. It seems that.
He wrote on
[Hyung-san, it was a fun four years. It doesn’t hurt anyone if a young player misses four games. When trying something new, you need to give it time. It’s that simple. ]”
bhai jaan khud 4 saal maze kiye hain bachon k 4 matches k failure se khuch hurt ni hwa jab different cheezen try ki jati hain un ko time dena parta hai bara simple hai 🤗.#PakistanCricket
– Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) 20. January 2024
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