OUR STAFF REPORTER
LAHORE : Pakistan’s wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan has been named by Wisden in its 2021 list of “cricketers of the year” for his performance in the English season last year.
According to information made available here on Thursday, 28-year-old Rizwan was named among five others including Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Jason Holder and Darren Stevens as cricketers of the year in the2021 edition of Wisden Almanack. Rizwan is the 18th Pakistani player in history to feature in the list by the famous publication.
Rizwan was rewarded for both his work behind the stumps and his batting – he averaged more than 40 across three Tests – for Pakistan during their 1-0 series defeat to England,” Wisden explained about induction of the wicket-keeper batsman in the list.
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year list honour those players who have had significant influence on a previous English season. It started as “six great bowlers of the year” before turning permanently into a feature to recognise “five players of the year” since 1897. In 1955, Fazal Mehmood became the first ever Pakistani to be named by Wisden in its cricketers of the year list and since then a total of 18 players have made it.
In 2017, two former Pakistani cricketers and current national team coaches including Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan were named in the list by Wisden. Other notable Pakistani cricketers who achieved the feat were Mushtaq Mohammad, Asif Iqbal, Hanif Mohammad, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Imran Khan, Saleem Malik, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Saeed Anwar, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mohammad Yousaf.