Sussex County Cricket Club has signed Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter, Mohammad Rizwan, for the major part of the 2022 season.
“Sussex Cricket is extremely excited to announce the signing of Pakistani wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, who will join Sussex following Australia’s tour of Pakistan that concludes in early April,” the club said on its official statement on Thursday.
Sussex Cricket is excited to announce the signing of Pakistani wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan. 🌟 🤝
Welcome to Sussex, @iMRizwanPak! 🙌 🇵🇰 #GOSBTS
— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) December 16, 2021
This would be Rizwan’s first stint with Sussex or any English club. During his nearly three-month stay, the right-handed batter will play both the County Championship and the T20 Blast until the end of the T20 competition in mid-July.
The 29-year-old has had a memorable year of cricket. He has scored more than 1280 runs in T20I cricket, thanks to a hundred and 12 fifties. He also surpassed Chris Gayle’s six-year-old record for the most T20 runs scored in a calendar year.
He was also the third-highest run-scorer in the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with 281 runs in six innings and is now ranked fourth in the ICC T20I rankings for batters.
In red-ball 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 a 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.
Praising Rizwan’s performance on the tour, 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 wicketkeeper.”
