Pakistan opener Mohammad Rizwan well and truly made 2021 his year. On Thursday, he became the first batter to register over 2,000 men’s T20 runs in a year. He had earlier become the only batter to score more than 1,000 T20I runs in a calendar year, and now his figures stand at 1,326, all scored in 12 months. In what has been a brilliant season for Rizwan, he has been one of the pillars in Pakistan’s rise as a powerhouse of T20 cricket in recent times and has cemented his place as one of the batting mainstays, an able partner to skipper Babar Azam.
A few good performances in Tests saw him being pushed into the limited-overs squad Rizwan began 2021 on an immense high, blasting a 64-ball 104* against South Africa in February Rizwan’s performance in the T20 World Cup was synonymous with Pakistan’s run in the tournament.