Former Pakistan women’s captain Urooj Mumtaz criticized Mohammad Rizwan for consuming too many dot balls during the crucial middle overs, contributing to Pakistan’s six-wicket defeat to India in the 2025 Champions Trophy. Despite scoring 46 off 77 balls, Rizwan’s performance was marked by 29 dot balls, leading to a 48% dot ball rate. Urooj highlighted that Rizwan’s slow play not only hindered his scoring but also pressured his batting partner, Saud Shakeel. She stressed the need for better strike rotation from Rizwan, especially with key players out of form, emphasizing the captain’s role in leading the team effectively.
Mohammad Rizwan in action© AFP
Former captain of the Pakistan women’s team, Urooj Mumtaz, expressed her discontent with skipper Mohammad Rizwan for accumulating too many dot balls during the middle overs, which contributed to their six-wicket loss to India in the 2025 Champions Trophy match held in Dubai. Although Rizwan scored 46 runs, making him Pakistan’s second-highest run-scorer in their total of 241 runs off 49.4 overs, he consumed 77 balls to achieve that score, recording 29 dot balls between the 11th and 24th overs. The slowdown in Pakistan’s scoring began right after the power play, where they were at 52/2, resulting in an overall dot ball percentage of 48 percent.
“Rizwan repeatedly makes the mistake of facing too many dot balls. Then he occasionally plays a release shot. At one point, he was on around 40 runs from nearly 70 deliveries, looking like he might play another release shot.”
“He was 30 off 68 (24 off 53) when he struck that single four. On the other hand, Saud (Shakeel) isn’t the aggressive player; it’s usually Rizwan who steps up as the aggressor when he finds his rhythm,” Urooj told ESPNcricinfo.
Rizwan participated in a 104-run partnership with Saud Shakeel, but it required 144 balls to achieve this. Urooj also believed that Rizwan’s slow approach placed additional pressure on the left-handed batter Shakeel to accelerate.
“In my opinion, Rizwan’s 46 off 77 balls, equating to a strike rate of 59, simply wasn’t sufficient, especially considering we are relying on him in a team where our best batter (Babar Azam) is currently out of form and hasn’t been scoring big runs… and he got out early. Imam faced that unfortunate run-out.”
“Thus, it was Rizwan’s responsibility as captain to step up and demonstrate a brave attitude. He could have focused on better strike rotation instead of wasting so many balls, as I believe that significantly increased the pressure on Saud as well,” she concluded.
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