How did promoting Mohammad Rizwan to open make him the T20I Batsman he is today?
Touted by most to be a long-term middle order bat in the ODI and Test side, how did being promoted to open in T20Is help him become an all-format star for Pakistan?
Up until Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand in 2020, the then 28-year-old Mohammad Rizwan had played 23 T20Is for Pakistan, with 8 of them coming in 2015, 2 of them in 2016, 6 of them in 2019, and the remainder of them in 2020.
And his aggregate numbers were horrific.
185 runs averaging 16.82 striking at 96.35 horrific to be exact.
Part of this stemmed from a lack of role clarity from the Pakistan management, being sent in as high as #3 and all the other numbers that followed up to #9 as if he was Abdul Razzaq.
Except he was not Abdul Razzaq.
On the New Zealand tour, the then Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq made the decision that completely changed his T20 career trajectory: sending him to open the innings.
He opened the innings in all three of the T20Is, and lived up to the proverb, “the third time is the charm.”
The series was already won by New Zealand at that point, but the final T20I marked the beginning of Rizwan the T20 Opener, scoring 89 off 59 deliveries at a strike rate of 150.85.
And he hasn’t looked back since.
Since he opened for the first time in T20Is, Rizwan’s numbers have astronomically improved, scoring 1477 runs averaging 67.1 striking at 134.5. He has also become a significantly more impactful batsman since he began opening in the format.
But how did molding him into an opener help him prosper in T20 cricket?
“Rizwan can use the pace up front, he is good on the back foot, and he pulls and cuts well. His skill to time the ball early in the innings rather than hitting the ball hard is what makes him a very good choice for opening the innings,” said Misbah in an interview with Cricwick.
“He is good with his feet, he sweeps well and he has those cheeky shots which makes him more dangerous in the powerplay,” Misbah further stated.
Cricviz has further echoed Misbah's observations on Rizwan's pull and sweep strokes.
Prominent Twitter analyst Alagappan Vijayakumar also talked about the value of being good on the backfoot against raw pace as an opener in the form of Manish Pandey, a fellow right-handed anchor batsman like Rizwan.
“[It is important for an opener to be good on the backfoot because of] fielding restrictions and how conventional strokeplay can exploit it, mainly.” says Alagappan.
“You don’t want your cuts and pulls and lofted shots against good lengths down the ground to go for 1s and 2s, which is what will happen if players like Rizwan come after the powerplay.” he continued.
“You want maximum yield - boundaries. If players get that, then it takes a lot of scoreboard pressure off them and they will get more judicious in what they try to do against spin.
“Also the moment you see a subcontinent player/team, opponents try to intimidate you with pace.”
“If you have someone good on the backfoot to take down such lengths traveling through the course of an innings from Overs 1-16, it is easier to fit other player types around it.” he said.
“For example, the presence of such players can make spin hitters more effective.”
“To counter someone like [Nitish] Rana, you would bring in a back of a length at pace and if a well-set Manish takes the bowler down, it is chaos time for the opposition captain.
“He can only go to spin next and Rana will make that’s going to cost for them.”
So how can you break this down into layman’s terms?
In the powerplay, the batsman is normally up against pace more frequently than spin. High-quality pace to be exact; high-quality pacers that can naturally bowl quick and ones that can swing and/or seam the ball.
In literal layman’s terms, Rizwan has a good game against pace.
And it wasn’t as if this was restricted to the nets that only coach Misbah knew about, it was always there.
Even when he had the aforementioned abysmal numbers in T20Is, his numbers against pace in the first five seasons of the PSL were relatively good for his standards back then: 22.6|122.7.
Take his first PSL half-century in the inaugural season of the league back in 2016 against the Islamabad United playing for the Lahore Qalandars for instance.
Coming in at #6 at over 12.4, Rizwan blasted a 27-ball 50 at a strike rate of 185.18 to help propel the Qalandars to 166/6 in the first innings.
And 42 of those 50 runs came against pace at a strike rate of 233.33, against the likes of Andre Russell, Rumman Raees, and Mohammad Sami.
And all of the qualities Misbah mentioned in the aforementioned interview more than four years after that innings were present.
In the first GIF, he goes across his stumps to play an unorthodox shot.
In the third GIF, Rizwan plays the cut off the back foot, and in the final GIF, he slogs off the backfoot.
In the fourth and fifth GIFs, Rizwan’s ability to play the pull well is accompanied by his quick bat speed which also helps in timing the ball.
As obvious as it sounds, Rizwan’s success since he started opening also comes from the fact that getting to open the innings helps batsmen settle in and get your eye in, as the powerplay fielding restrictions primarily benefit the batsmen.
And that’s perfect for anchors such as Rizwan, who can then look to launch against their favorable matchups once they are well settled and can see the ball much like a football.
What is rather ironic is that Rizwan’s neutral position and trigger movement against pace in the career-changing final T20I where he opened against New Zealand did not see any major change from the PSL match where he scored his first fifty.
Rizwan has a narrow stance that helps generate momentum on slower decks. He also has a relatively high backlift, an important component of powerhitting as it allows him to impart more force onto the ball due to more acceleration generated from the bat.
The primary difference in the neutral positions is Rizwan is now not as crouched and that his feet are more in line with his leg stump.
The trigger movements do see a noticeable change, but the end result is mostly the same.
Against United, Rizwan began with a bat-tap technique followed by slightly dragging his front foot to align with his back foot and further lifting the bat.
Against New Zealand, Rizwan starts off the same as he did against United, except the bat tap is no longer present. He follows by dragging his back foot in between the middle stump and off stump region and dragging his front foot across to his middle stump.
Rizwan's neutral position since New Zealand 2020 is a lot more free-moving (how he triggers across his stumps), which allows him to get into a better action position to potentially impart more force onto the ball.
This is reflected by his numbers of 75.3|145 in T20Is and 64|134.4 since he joined the Multan Sultans in the PSL.
His upper body-lower body combination went from open entirely to open chested and closed-kneed.
Rizwan opting to go closed-kneed could because it helps him be equally proficient against both types of swing rather than only be able to dominate inswing.
The open-closed combination also helps attain a greater X-Factor Stretch, which is the difference between the hip-shoulder separation at the point of downswing initiation and the point of contact.
The X-Factor stretch also has a positive correlation with the batting range attained.
One reason for Rizwan’s struggles in T20Is pre-New Zealand 2020 was his poor numbers against both away and in-spin: 18.2|98.6 and -|116 respectively.
And that’s especially poor considering the majority of his T20Is during that time were post-2016, where legspinners evolved and spinners were being utilized more in the middle overs (overs 7-16), where Rizwan would typically come in. And with him being an anchor having those sorts of numbers, it was destined to be a recipe for disaster.
The numbers were only slightly better in his T20s pre-New Zealand 2020, 98|115.3 against away-spin (dismissed only once) and 14.3|104.9. These numbers are composed of his first five PSL seasons and his two matches in BPL2017 with the Sylhet Sixers.
And even since he became a regular opener in T20 cricket, his struggles against spin in the middle overs are still well intact.
In T20Is post-New Zealand 2020, his numbers against away-spin read as 77.7|118.9 and 57.5|117.3 in the middle overs. While the averages are high, the strike rates are far from ideal considering Rizwan is well set by then.
This implies that the opposition can apply a spin choke on Rizwan to contain him and eventually dismiss him. Cricviz also identified this possibility during the PSL7 earlier this year.
Rizwan’s middle over spin struggles is especially prominent in the PSL since he joined the Sultans, with numbers of 80.5|105.9 against away spin and 59|96.7 against in-spin respectively, once again implying that a spin choke can be applied on him.
So how has he still been able to succeed if he is that poor against spin in the middle overs even though he now opens?
It’s simple: either his partners at the other end are generally able to cover this weakness, or he plays it out if that is not the case, and waits for a poor ball, somewhat resonant of a high risk-high reward approach.
Let’s take a look at his opening partners.
For example, when playing for Pakistan, Rizwan opens with captain Babar Azam, who has a better record than him against away and in-spin in the middle overs: 122.5|136.9 and 73|132.7 (post-New Zealand 2020 numbers) respectively.
This means Rizwan can rotate the strike over to Babar and can wait for when a pacer bowls to cash in. This was on display in Pakistan’s iconic chase of 152 against India in the 2021 T20 World Cup last year.
In overs 7-16, Rizwan scored 9 runs off 10 deliveries of Ravindra Jadeja (no boundaries), while against Varun Chakravarthy, he faced 10 deliveries and scored 14 runs (including a six), and rotated the strike to Babar 12 times.
Against Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah combined, he struck at 155.6 across 9 balls during that phase. Rizwan finished scoring 79* runs at a strike rate of 143.64.
The latter happened against Australia in the semi-final when he was accompanied by Fakhar Zaman at the other end, who is a pace hitter. Rizwan struck at 127.3 against Adam Zampa across 11 balls and 85.7 across 7 balls of Glenn Maxwell.
This led to Mohammad Rizwan striking at 128.84 when he was dismissed for 67.
And since joining the Sultans, Rizwan has primarily opened with Shan Masood, who again has a better record than Rizwan against away and in-spin in the middle overs: 26.5|176.7 against away-spin and 68|138.8 against in-spin.
Both Rizwan and Shan had a great PSL7 campaign this year, finishing second and third on the runs list respectively.
This meant that the majority of the time, not only was Rizwan batting with someone well set in Shan but also someone who can cover his major spin deficiencies and in turn go on the onslaught against pace, a major ingredient in his recipe for success this season.
All in all, seeing as how good Rizwan’s game was against pace even in the years he had a mediocre T20I record, it certainly does make one wonder that if a coach at the domestic level had identified that Rizwan should open, perhaps the very short-term experiments of Rafatullah Mohmand, Mukhtar Ahmed, and Ahsan Ali would have never taken place.
But there are always what-if conundrums that pop up when all becomes well. What if the thought of making Rizwan open never had crossed Misbah's mind? Would Rizwan have been anywhere near the T20I side right now or the PSL for that matter? Would he ever have made it into the Platinum category? Would the iconic 10 wicket chase against India have been orchestrated?
But perhaps, such questions can only be answered when technology advances to the point where we can travel between alternate universes. Because for the moment, Mohammed Rizwan is scoring runs, and scoring them well.