Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Shoaib Malik backed the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to appoint Mohammad Rizwan as white-ball captain of the national men’s team.
Rizwan on Sunday, replaced Babar Azam as Pakistan’s white-ball captain after the latter stepped down from the role earlier this month, in a bid to focus more on his role as a player.
The 32-year-old will begin his tenure as captain with the white-ball series in Australia, starting on November 4.
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.
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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 a recent media interaction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Shoaib Malik expressed his admiration for Rizwan, highlighting his exceptional skills as a cricketer, while welcoming the wicket-keeper’s appointment as the white-ball captain.
“I am pleased that Mohammad Rizwan has become the captain of the cricket team; he is a smart cricketer,” Malik stated. “I pray for his success; failure teaches you more, while success can lead to complacency.”
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