Pakistan batter Mohammad Rizwan and Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav are competing in a close battle to no.1 spot in the ICC T20I rankings.
Earlier this month, Rizwan had surpassed his team skipper Babar Azam to become the No.1 T20I batter when Yadav was at No.4. However, ace Indian batter played some incredible knocks in the home series against Australia and South Africa that made him climb up and get the No. 2 spot. Yadav, who is unstoppable with his form has eyes set on No.1 position as there is only a few points gap between him and Rizwan.
Talking about this competition to seal the top spot, Rizwan hailed Yadav for his prowess but opined that critics should look at them differently given that Rizwan is an opener and the other is a middle-order batter.
Rizwan said, “Good player hain Suryakumar Yadav. Jis tarah se woh khelte hain, mujhe bohot pasand he. Magar jaha tak cheezen he and different tarike se dekha jae kyunki middle order and top order mukhtalif cheezen hain. Kabhi No.1 ke liye socha nahi hain jo demand he Pakistan ki woh pura karne ki koshish kar raha hu. No.1 or Man of the Match, aise kuch cheeze hain jo negative main le jati hain. Par main sochta nehi hu."
He further talked about playing conditions and how he prepares himself to play at different pitches. In the Asia Cup final when Pakistan were defeated by Sri Lanka then Rizwan was quite criticised for his slow run-rate. However, while talking about the batting style on different pitches, he said,
“Ha kabhi pitches aisa milta hain ki 60 balls pe 40 karna padta he but wohi Pakistan ka demand tha. Pichle saal Bangladesh series main bhi wohi tha, UAE me chale jae toh 145 banana mushkil he."
During the South Africa series, Yadav had a chance to topple Rizwan and claim the No.1 spot, but was dismissed for just eight runs in the final T20I match of the series. However, his power-hitting batting has reduced the gap to just 16 points. Pakistan is currently playing alongside New Zealand and Bangladesh in the tri-series where Rizwan has a good chance to take a strong lead on top position at ICC standings.
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