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Multan Sultans have appointed Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan as their skipper ahead of the 6th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2021.
Mohammad Rizwan replaces Shan Masood, who led the Multan Sultans in the previous edition of the PSL. The announcement was made through an official statement by the Multan Sultans on their social media handles.
Rizwan was previously part of the Karachi Kings, the defending PSL champions, but was picked up by the Multan team in the PSL 2021 draft.
“I look forward to leading the Multan Sultans team for the upcoming season,” Rizwan said in a team press release. “I have understood the innovative approach the franchise applied last season and am looking forward to playing my part this season. Multan Sultans had a successful HBL PSL 5, and we will aspire to go even better this time around, especially with senior Pakistani players like Shahid Afridi, Shan Masood, and Sohail Tanvir.”
While revealing the team’s new captain, team owner Alamgir Khan Tareen said: “Rizwan has shown exemplary leadership qualities with the Pakistan team as well as with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in domestic tournaments. We are grateful to Shan Masood for leading the franchise exceptionally well last season and for instilling a winning mentality in the team.”
Before the New Zealand tour, Rizwan had impressed in domestic cricket in the National T20 tournament. He scored four fifties, including an unbeaten 99 against Central Punjab, which helped him finish as the highest run-scorer, while he also impressed behind the stumps. His diving catch against Sindh, in particular, was a major talking point in the tournament. His tournament tally of 389 runs at 38.90 – and a strike rate of 127.96 – led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the 2020 title.
Most recently, Rizwan scored his maiden Test hundred against South Africa. In the T20I series that followed, he played all three games as an opener and struck his maiden T20I century in the first match. He finished as the highest run-scorer while also collecting the Player of the Series award for the T20Is. In the PSL, he has batted only 24 times – in 35 matches – with a high score of 50 at a strike rate of 115.94.
“Rizwan had shown that he got leadership qualities when he captained Pakistan while Babar (Azam) was injured,” Flower said. “He’s also got an excellent record in domestic cricket, recently won the T20 tournament for his state (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), so he got the qualities to make a very successful leader.
“I don’t know him well, but doing a bit of research on him and some of the leadership qualities, we are looking for a new way forward. In saying that, I would say that I enjoyed working with Shan Masood last year. I thought he captained very well, played very well, and was very much a part of us doing well last season,” said Andy Flower.
