Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan (L) celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the second day of the first Test cricket match between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. (Image: AFP)
Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan is now in the WTC record-books after his stellar unbeaten knock against Bangladesh in the 1st Test in Rawalpindi.
The Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter, Mohammad Rizwan was in some fine form during the first Test against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi. The middle-order batter racked up a mammoth individual score of 171 runs which came in 239 balls to help the hosts register a first-innings score of 448.
As a result of Rizwan’s knock, he now holds the highest individual score by a wicketkeeper batter, in World Test Championship history, surpassing the likes of England’s Jos Buttler and India’s Rishabh Pant in the process.
| Rank | Name | Team | Runs | Opp’n | Year |
| 1 | Mohammad Rizwan | PAK | 171* | BAN | 2024 |
| 2 | Jos Buttler | ENG | 152 | PAK | 2020 |
| 3 | Rishabh Pant | IND | 146 | ENG | 2022 |
| 4 | Quinton de Kock | SA | 141* | WI | 2021 |
| 5 | Litton Das | BAN | 141 | SL | 2022 |
| 6 | Kyle Verreynne | SA | 136* | NZ | 2022 |
| 7 | Sarfaraz Ahmed | PAK | 118 | NZ | 2023 |
| 8 | Mohammad Rizwan | PAK | 115* | SA | 2021 |
| 9 | Litton Das | BAN | 114 | PAK | 2021 |
| 10 | Ben Foakes | ENG | 113* | SA | 2022 |
Rizwan’s unbeaten knock has also become the highest score by a Pakistan wicketkeeper as well surpassing the former skipper, Sarfaraz Ahmed’s ton that came against New Zealand in 2023.
The 32-year-old led Pakistan’s fightback against Bangladesh with a middle-order partnership along with the vice-captain Saud Shakeel where the duo registered a 240-run stand to help revive Pakistan’s chances of being in the hunt.
Pakistan will now hope that their all-pace attack can get the job done but have been struggling to deal with the tough conditions which doesn’t give much for the bowlers.
Bangladesh’s opening batter, Shadman Islam led the visitor’s charge with a fine knock of 93 runs followed by fifties from the likes of Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim and Litton Das to keep them in contention of matching Pakistan’s first innings score.
While the spotlight has been on Pakistan for all the wrong reasons, the side under the leadership of Shan Masood will hope to kick-start their season on a positive by taking the win in the home Test series.
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At the end of the third day, Bangladesh trail by 192 runs while Pakistan need five more wickets to bring an end to the visitor’s first innings. Should either side hope to take the win, some risks would have to be taken in terms of their approach with bat or ball.
