Follow UsIn a must-win ICC Champions Trophy 2025 game against India in Dubai, Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan played a fearful and painful knock of 46 off 77 deliveries. The wicketkeeper-batter did add 104 runs for the third wicket with Saud Shakeel (62 off 76) but it took them 144 deliveries to get those runs, with Rizwan operating at a terrible strike rate of 59.74.
Eventually Rizwan failed to accelerate after eating up 77 deliveries and Pakistan could only manage 241 runs, which India hunted down with nearly eight overs to spare. It was the slowest knock played by a Pakistan wicketkeeper this century. As a result, hosts Pakistan are now more or less out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
This was not the first time Rizwan’s slow knock cost Pakistan the game. Forget bilateral white-ball games, here, we look at three such match-losing knocks from the 32-year-old in ICC events.
The pressure of playing arch-rivals India in ICC events isn’t something Rizwan is built for. Apart from his one knock in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Rizwan has never played even a half-decent innings against India in ICC events. In the 2023 ODI World Cup match against India, the right-hander scored 49 at a strike rate of 71.01, while the other top-three batters went at a strike rate of more than 85.
Rizwan added 82 runs for the third wicket with Babar Azam (50 off 58) but once the latter got out in the 30th over, the wicketkeeper-batter didn’t even try to maintain the same tempo. Rizwan wasted too many deliveries and was eventually knocked over by Jasprit Bumrah. Pakistan got bowled out for 191 and the Men in Blue chased it down in just 30.3 overs.
Another must-win game, with Pakistan chasing 337 against England in Kolkata, and Rizwan once again ended up playing a knock that hurt his own team. Pakistan lost their openers early, but to qualify for the semis, the Men in Green had no other option but to go for the target.
Rizwan, however, went about his business at a strike rate of just 70.59 and ended up making the run-chase almost impossible for the lower middle-order. Pakistan lost the game by 93 runs.
Let’s go back to another India-Pakistan game, but this time in the 20-over format, during the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. All Pakistan had to get was 120 and Rizwan somehow still managed to mess things up. The required rate was below six at one stage, all Rizwan had to do was bat till the end, especially after having faced more than 30 percent of the deliveries of the innings.
For some reason, Rizwan then attempted a slog sweep off Bumrah and ended up getting knocked over. Pakistan lost the game by six runs and were knocked out of the tournament.