Suryakumar Yadav from India and Mohammad Rizwan from Pakistan are two of the top batters in T20 international cricket this year. In the shortest format in 2022, they both scored a tonne of runs. Surya is the top run scorer with 801 runs from 23 matches, and Rizwan is in second place with 698 runs from 14 games. The trend is the opposite in the ICC rankings, where Rizwan is in the first place and Surya is his top rival for the top spot.
Last week, Surya actually edged him out for the lead, but Rizwan came back and has since increased it even further after impressing the Men in Green in the opening T20I tri-series game against Bangladesh. Rizwan was unbeaten in the first game at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Friday, scoring 78 runs off of 50 balls to lead his team to a 21-run victory.
After the game on Friday, Rizwan spoke with reporters about his competition with Suryakumar for the number one spot in T20Is. He was very complimentary of Suryakumar’s batting but cautioned against comparing the two because one is an opener and the other is a middle-order batsman.
He said, “Good player hain Suryakumar Yadav. Jis tarah se woh khelte hain, mujhe bohot pasand hai. Magar jaha tak cheezen hai unko different tarike se dekha jae kyunki middle order and top order mukhtalif cheezen hain. Kabhi No.1 ke liye socha nahi hain. Jo demand hai Pakistan ki usko pura karne ki koshish kar raha hoon. No.1 or Man of the Match, aise kuch cheeze hai jo negative main le jati hai. Par main sochta hi hoon (Suryakumar Yadav is a good player. I like the way he bats. But as far as things are concerned, it’s better to look at them differently because batting at the top and middle order are completely different. I have never thought about No.1. I am only willing to fulfill the demands of the team. The No.1 position and Man of the Match are things that take you to the negative zone. So I don’t think about them).”
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Rizwan will play at least three more games before Suryakumar’s next appearance, which will be against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup encounter on October 23 at the MCG. With strong performances in the T20I tri-series, where Pakistan will play New Zealand in Christchurch in their second game on Saturday, he would have an opportunity to close the run gap between him and Surya.
