Pakistan’s newly appointed white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan vowed to lead from the front, stating he would be flexible and ready to sacrifice for the sake of the national team.
Rizwan on Sunday, replaced Babar Azam as Pakistan’s white-ball captain after the latter stepped down from the role earlier this month, citing to focus more on his role as a player.
Rizwan’s first assignment as captain will be the white-ball series in Australia, starting on 4 November.
Mohammad Rizwan, who debuted in white-ball cricket in 2015, has played 74 ODIs and 102 T20Is to date, scoring 5,401 runs with four centuries and accounting for 143 dismissals behind the stumps.
As he leads the team in the opening ODI against Australia in Melbourne on 4 November, Rizwan will become Pakistan’s 31st captain. For the first T20I in Brisbane on 14 November, he will be the 12th to captain Pakistan in the format.
During an interview with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Digital, Rizwan highlighted the must-have qualities for a captain and massively emphasized the importance of ensuring unity in the team.
“A captain’s quality is about uniting the entire team, keeping them together, and knowing which player to call upon at critical moments. The captain’s unique quality is to keep the team together. We have young talent on our team, and this team will look different in this series,” said Rizwan.
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Mohammad Rizwan went on to assert that every single player in the national team would be a captain and he would only be the one doing the toss. The wicketkeeper batter also claimed that as a leader, he is willing to make sacrifices for the team, in any aspect of the game.
“For me, every player on the team is a captain; it’s just that I’m the one doing the toss. On the field, the whole team will look like a single unit,” stated Rizwan.
“Wicket-keeping, batting, and captaincy together are definitely a challenge, but I’ve done this before. PSL was a big event where I captained, and I’ve also been vice-captain before, so I’ll try to apply whatever I’ve learned from those experiences.
“A leader isn’t a leader if he doesn’t lead from the front. If I want something from my players but don’t set the example myself, then my players won’t receive the message, and they won’t be able to do it either.
“As a leader, I am willing to make sacrifices and stay flexible for the team’s needs, whether that’s fielding, wicketkeeping, or the batting order. Whatever is required for Pakistan, I will do it,” he concluded.
READ: Mohammad Rizwan aims to rewrite history in Australia series