Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan has become the only batsman in history to join score 2000 or more runs in a calendar year.
He achieved this record with a scintillating fifty in the third Twenty20 International (T20I) against West Indies on Thursday.
The 29-year-old has had a memorable year of cricket. With this achievement, Rizwan also became the only batsman to score over 13,00 T20I runs and smash 12 T20I fifties in a calendar year, surpassing Chris Gayles record of 1,165 runs.
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In first-class cricket, Rizwan averages over 43 with the bat, including nearly 1,000 runs in 19 Test matches at an average of over 42.
Rizwan was on the roll when Pakistan last visited England in 2020. In the three-match Test series, the right-handed batter averaged over 40 and was named Pakistan’s player of the series. Former England captain and now a cricket commentator, Nasser Hussain described him as “the best for a long, long time” when it came to touring wicketkeepers.
Rizwan’s overall international record has been very impressive. In 54 T20Is, Rizwan averages a stunning 50.06 with the bat at a strike rate of 126.6. He has enjoyed a stellar 2021, becoming the first batter to score over a thousand T20I runs in a calendar year and surpassed Chris Gayle’s six-year-old record for the most T20 runs scored in a calendar year.
