Basit Ali counselled Rizwan on batting

Rizwan who is in great rhythm in white ball cricket is now trying to get back himself in red ball cricket. In T20 cricket, Rizwan, whose bat left the opponent’s bowlers sweating with four sixes, is now not getting a chance in the Test team. Former Pakistani batsman Basit Ali advised Rizwan who was dropped from the team.

Rizwan did not even see a fifty in the last 12 innings of the Test edition. Visiting England won the series. He scored 141 runs at an average of 23.5 in the Test series there. But the pattern of Rizwan’s getting out was unacceptable. Safarraj got a chance in the team instead of him as he could not score runs as expected with the bat.

However, Basit Ali explained the reason for Rizwan’s off-form. In an interview, the former Pakistan cricketer said, “Rizwan is a great batsman, but he has a problem with his bat grip. He uses an ‘O’-shaped grip on his bat, not a ‘V’-shaped grip. Because of this, the handle of the bat looks long and he cannot control it properly. That’s why he’s not playing the way he wants to play. Rizwan needs to shorten the bat handle, only then will he look like a different player. Hopefully, he’ll get back into a rhythm soon.”

52-year-old Basit also talked about how the handle of the bat should be. He said, “Most of the bat handles have an ‘O’ shaped grip. But if it’s too long, you put the batsman in trouble. Timing will be a problem. He won’t be able to play his normal shots. Rizwan has this problem. It’s the reason for Rizwan’s giving catch off Anderson at mid-wicket. He has a problem with timing.”

Basit also said that he can only give advice, but whether it is accepted or not depends entirely on Rizwan. He said, “Everything is fine with him. He just needs to reduce the grip. I can only give him advice. It’s up to him to accept or not.”

Meanwhile, Safarraj instead of Rizwan made great use of the opportunity. He formed a great partnership with Babar Azam in the first innings of the Test series against New Zealand on Pakistani soil. Gifted the team an innings of 86 runs. And if Safarraj maintains this continuity, Rizwan’s becoming a brother will be certain. Let’s see if Rizwan can get back to the rhythm of overcoming the bad time.