Mohammed Rizwan and Saud Shakeel were sensational for Pakistan with the bat during the first Test match against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. Opting to bat first, Pakistan declared their innings at 448 for the loss of 6 wickets. They were rocked back early during the innings with 16/3 but Rizwan and Shakeel rescued the team with a 98-run partnership.
Rizwan played an unbeaten knock of 171 runs off 239 balls. On the other hand, Shakeel scored 141 runs off 269 balls. When Pakistan decided to declare, Rizwan was stranded at 171 runs and, thus, did not get his chance to complete his first double century in Test cricket.
When he returned to the pavilion, the Pakistani players came down to applaud the marathon innings from the wicketkeeper-batter. When Rizwan stepped outside the boundary rope, he tossed his bat to Babar Azam and both of them burst into a laugh. Rizwan and Babar share a very close bonding with each other.
Rizwan smashed 11 boundaries and 3 sixes during the innings. In reply, Bangladesh are currently at 250 for the loss of 5 wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim is currently batting on 8 runs. On the other hand, Litton Das is batting on 17 runs. Mominul Haque scored a half-century and Shadman Islam scored 93 runs for the side. Khurram Shahzad has picked up two wickets, Mohammad Ali, Saim Ayub and Naseem Shah have picked up 1 wicket each.
Saud Shakeel spoke about Pakistan not allowing Mohammed Rizwan to reach his double century
Pakistan’s vice-captain, Saud Shakeel stated that the team did not take the declaration decision in haste and Rizwan was informed before hand about the decision. He was informed of the score at which Pakistan will be declaring their innings.
“See, as far as Rizwan bhai’s double century is concerned, I don’t think there was a haste in taking the decision (to declare the innings). Because Rizwan bhai was clearly told an hour before that we would be declaring at this point of time. So he had an idea when we will declare. He was told we will try to near 450 before declaring,” Shakeel said.
