Mohammad Rizwan plays club cricket instead of National T20 Cup

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan on Sunday, made headlines by playing club cricket instead of the ongoing National T20 Cup, underway until March 27.

After Pakistan’s disastrous campaign at the recently concluded ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, where the hosts and defending champions could not win a single match and finished at the bottom of Group A standings with just one point, white-ball captain Rizwan went to perform Umrah.

Upon his return to his hometown, the wicketkeeper, instead of performing in the 18-team National T20 Cup, stayed here and played club cricket.

In the latest turn of events, a couple of pictures of Rizwan are going viral on social media in which he can be seen featuring in club cricket and as per some of the posts on microblogging website X, formerly Twitter, he scored an unbeaten century.

Notably, Mohammad Rizwan was among the senior players overlooked for Pakistan’s ongoing five-match away T20I series against New Zealand.

The former T20 champions had a forgetful start to the series as they succumbed to a humiliating nine-wicket defeat in the opener.

Batting first, the touring side’s batting unit unfolded on a meagre 91, courtesy of a dismal start to their innings, which saw them losing three wickets for just one run.

New Zealand, in response, made the light work of the run chase and comfortably knocked the winning runs for the loss of just one wicket and 59 balls to spare, handing Pakistan their worst defeat in the format while batting first.