The Vancouver Knights have selected Mohammad Rizwan to be their leader for the GT20 Canada 2024, instead of Babar Azam. Rizwan has not been the captain of the Pakistani national team, but he has had success leading the Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Babar, meanwhile, is the current captain of the national team and also leads Peshawar Zalmi in the PSL.
“The Vancouver Knights have picked their captain for GT20 Season 4: Mohammad Rizwan. With his great batting and excellent wicketkeeping, he’s prepared to guide us to success. Get ready, Knights!” the GT20 Canada team wrote in a statement.
Babar and Rizwan are two of the four Pakistani players on their cricket team, along with experienced fast bowler Mohammad Amir and middle-order batter Asif Ali. Their team also includes well-known international players such as Dwaine Pretorius, Sandeep Lamichhane, Dipendra Singh Airee, Paul van Meekeren, and Ruben Trumpelmann.
Squad: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Amir, Asif Ali, Michael Rippon, Dwaine Pretorius, Sandeep Lamichhane, Dipendra Singh Airee, Paul van Meekeren, Ruben Trumpelmann, Jeremy Gordon, Harsh Thaker, Rishiv Joshi, Sarmad Anwar, Shubham Sharma, Yuvraj Samra, Ajayveer Singh, Mandeep Girdhar
Babar Azam hasn’t been having a great time recently. He came back as the captain for Pakistan’s one-day and T20 cricket teams earlier this year, but he hasn’t had much success. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Pakistan didn’t make it to the Super 8 stage. They started by losing to the United States in a match that needed a Super Over to decide the winner.
After that, Pakistan lost to India, led by Rohit Sharma, by 6 runs in New York. They couldn’t chase down a target of 120 runs on a tough pitch. Even though Pakistan beat Canada and Ireland, these wins weren’t enough for them to move to the next round of the tournament.
In 4 games, Babar made 122 runs with an average of 40.66 and a strike-rate of 101.66, with his highest score being 44. The captain of the Pakistan team also received criticism from past cricket players, such as Virender Sehwag, who said that Babar should not be part of their national team.
