RAWALPINDI: Pakistan vice-captain Saud Shakeel defended the decision to declare the innings while Mohammad Rizwan was nearing his maiden double-century on the second day of the opening Test against Bangladesh.
Rizwan missed out on a well-deserved double-century as Pakistan declared their first innings at 448/6.
He remained the top-scorer for the home side with an unbeaten 171 off 239 deliveries, laced up with 11 fours and three sixes, followed by Saud, who scored 141 with the help of nine boundaries.
Many fans raised their concern over social media regarding the timing of the declaration, however, Saud defended the decision. He explained that Rizwan was informed about the decision an hour before it was made.
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“As far as Rizwan bhai’s double century is concerned, I don’t think the decision to declare was rushed,” Shakeel stated.
“Rizwan bhai was informed about an hour before that we would be declaring at this point. He knew our target was to approach 450 runs before declaring.”
With his monumental knock, the 32-year-old Rizwan joined the elite group of Pakistani wicketkeepers who crossed the 150-run mark in Test cricket, which includes Imtiaz Ahmed, Taslim Arif, Rashid Latif, and Kamran Akmal.
This marks the first time since 2009 that a wicketkeeper-batsman from Pakistan has scored 150 runs in a single Test match.
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