"Middle order aur top order alag cheez hai"-Mohammad Rizwan opens up on his competition with Suryakumar Yadav for the No 1 spot in T20I batters rankings

The last few weeks have witnessed a neck-to-neck battle between Suryakumar Yadav and Mohammad Rizwan for the number one spot in the T20I batters rankings. The Pakistan opener surpassed his opening partner and team captain Babar Azam to become the number one T20I batter last month with Suryakumar at No.4.

But several incredible knocks in the home series against Australia and South Africa made the Indian star rise in the rankings. Owing to his stupendous form in the shortest format of international cricket, Suryakumar is just a few ratings away from dethroning Rizwan at the top. On Thursday, Rizwan opened up on his battle with Suryakumar for the No.1 spot.

The Pakistan batter made his comments moments after his unbeaten 78 helped Pakistan beat Bangladesh in their tri-series opener in Christchurch. The right-handed batter hailed his Indian rival for his prowess but opined that critics should look at them differently given that Rizwan is an opener and the other is a middle-order batter.

“Good player hain Suryakumar Yadav. Jis tarah se woh khelte hain, mujhe bohot pasand he. Magar jaha tak cheezen he and different tarike se dekha jae kyunki middle order and top order mukhtalif cheezen hain. Kabhi No.1 ke liye socha nahi hain jo demand he Pakistan ki woh pura karne ki koshish kar raha hu. No.1 or Man of the Match, aise kuch cheeze hain jo negative main le jati hain. Par main sochta nehi hu (He's a good player, I like the way he bats. But we can't be compared as things are different batting at opening spot and batting in the middle order. I never thought about becoming no. one batter, I just play according to the demands of my team. No 1 spot and Player of the match award are perceived negatively so I don't think much about them),” he said.

“Ha kabhi pitches aisa milta hain ki 60 balls pe 40 karna padta he but wohi Pakistan ka demand tha. Pichle saal Bangladesh series main bhi wohi tha, UAE me chale jae toh 145 banana mushkil he(Yes, sometimes we have to score 40 off 60 on on difficult pitches but that's also a demand of the team. Last year, the condition was same in Bangladesh series. If we go to UAE, there even 145 is difficult to score), he added.

Suryakumar missed out on the opportunity to topple Rizwan on Tuesday and claim the No one spot as he was dismissed for just eight runs in the final T20I match of the series against South Africa. Although he managed to reduce the gap to just 16 points, Rizwan now has the chance to consolidate his spot atop in the tri-series before the 20-20 World Cup kicks off.