'I can only give him advice': Pakistan great identifies unique problem behind Mohammad Rizwan's dip in Test form

Following his below par outing in the previous series against England, Mohammad Rizwan couldn't find a place in Pakistan's playing XI in the opening Test of the two-match series.

Mohammad Rizwan is one of Pakistan's key players when it comes to T20 format, but the wicketkeeper-batter has failed to replicate the same in Tests. Rizwan, who featured in all the three Tests against England in the recently-concluded series, where he could accumulate only 141 runs from six innings at an average of 23.50.

Mohammad Rizwan plays a shot (REUTERS)

Following his below par outing in the previous series, Rizwan couldn't find a place in Pakistan's playing XI in the opening Test of the two-match series. He was replaced by former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed in the XI, and the latter made maximum use of the rare opportunity. Sarfaraz stitched a solid 196-run stand for the fifth wicket with current skipper Babar Azam, out of which 86 runs came off Sarfaraz's bat. Babar, on the other hand, returned unbeaten on 161 as Pakistan recovered from 48/3 to finish 317/5 at stumps on Day 1.

Sharing his views on Rizwan, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali during an interaction on Cricwick mentioned that it is not Rizwan but his bat, which is causing him trouble.

"Uske grip ka masla hain. (His grip is the problem)

“His bats with an O grip and not V. Because of this his handle his handles usually comes out more and he needs to shorten the length of his handle. If he does this Rizwan will be a completely different player.”

He added: “The handle usually comes out with O grip and it shouldn't be the case. If it comes out, it will naturally disturb the player from playing his shots freely as was the case against (James) Anderson when he was caught at mid-wicket.

“I can only give him advice and it's up to him if he wants to implement it or not. Rest everything is fine.”