Rizwan and Babar opened together in 51 T20I innings, scoring 2,400 runs at an average of 48.97. They were the only pair to score more than 500 runs at the top of the order for the team, with eight hundred-plus stands. However, their strike rate was often a bone of contention, with both players batting conservatively more often than not.

Ahead of the New Zealand T20Is, the management decided to switch their opening pair after three years, pushing Saim Ayub up the order alongside Rizwan instead, with Babar dropping down. Team director Mohammad Hafeez reportedly conveyed to the former skipper that he was no longer being considered as an opener in the format.

The Ayub-Rizwan pair has yet to yield the desired results. In the four T20Is against New Zealand, they have made 69 runs at an average of 17.25 though their batting strike rate of 8.44 is slightly higher than the 7.92 Rizwan and Babar managed. Ayub and Rizwan have managed a best opening stand of 33 in the first T20I, after which they have notched up partnerships of 8, 23 and 5. Pakistan have lost all four games in the series.

Following the defeat in the fourth T20I, Rizwan stated that breaking the opening pair had hurt Pakistan. At the post-match conference, he said, “You can say that it [breaking the opening pair] has hurt Pakistan. I have told you before, you will see the effects eventually.

“Regarding the opening pair, we have spoken to the management, captain and Hafeez bhai, and I can only say that Babar bhai has a big heart. We both agreed there’s no issue, whatever they want to try, they should experiment.

“What’s tough is, when you break things and the Pakistan public sees the one thing that was going well, but the management was trying to experiment.”

What has Mohammad Amir said?

Amir has now seemingly taken a dig at Rizwan, saying he has enjoyed batting at the top for four years and is not giving the 21-year-old Ayub even four games to cement his place. Amir, however, did not mention who his tweet was directed to, instead using ‘Bhai Jaan [brother]’, but it seems to be for Rizwan after his comments.

He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Bhai jaan khud 4 saal maze kiye hain bachon k 4 matches k failure se khuch hurt ni hwa jab different cheezen try ki jati hain un ko time dena parta hai bara simple hai.”

[Brother, you have had fun for four years. No one is getting hurt if youngsters fail for four games. When you try new things, you need to give them time. It’s that simple.]”

bhai jaan khud 4 saal maze kiye hain bachon k 4 matches k failure se khuch hurt ni hwa jab different cheezen try ki jati hain un ko time dena parta hai bara simple hai 🤗.#PakistanCricket

— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) January 20, 2024