Babar Azam to now play under Mohammad Rizwan's captaincy

Pakistan team skipper Babar Azam will now play under wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan’s captaincy.

A Global T20 Canada League franchise, Vancouver Knights, has appointed Rizwan for the skipper's role on Sunday. The GT20 Canada franchise has also given the Pakistani opener title of ‘sir’ in the social media announcement.

“Hear ye, hear ye! The Vancouver Knights have chosen their captain for GT20 Season 4: Sir Muhammad Rizwan! ????️ With his mighty batting skills and sharp wicketkeeping, he's ready to lead our charge to victory. Prepare for battle, Knights!,” Vancouver Knights wrote on Facebook announcing Rizwan as their captain.

Pacer Mohammad Amir, Asif Ali, New Zealand’s Michael Rippon, South African Dwaine Pretorius, Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann and Guyana’s Jeremy Gordon too are part of the Knights.

GT20 Canada’s season 4 will begin on July 25 and its final will be held on August 11 in Canada.

Seven Pakistan cricket players —Babar, Asif, Amir, Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Nawaz — will feature in the league cricket.

Notably, Babar, Rizwan, Amir, Iftikhar and Shaheen were also part of Pakistan’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2024, wherein the team failed miserably and exited early on.

The league will see other international cricketers too such as Mohammad Nabi, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan Rahmanullah Gurbaz, David Wiese, Hazratullah Zazai, David Warner and Carlos Brathwaite.

The defending champions of the GT20 Canada are Montreal Tigers and they won the title in 2023 by defeating the Knights in the final. Rizwan was part of the Knights last year as well.

Complete squads of the GT20 Canada:

Montreal Tigers: Chris Lynn, Aayan Afzal Khan, Dilpreet Bajwa, Gerhard Erasmus, Zahoor Khan, Tom Latham, Ben Manenti, Azmatullah Omarzai, Sherfane Rutherford, Mohammad Saifuddin, Kaleem Sana, Naveen-ul-Haq, Parveen Dhull, Yuvraj Hundal, Prabhasees Raina, Charanjit Randhawa, Anoop Ravi, Aaditya Varadarajan.

Surrey Jaguars: Marcus Stoinis, Uday Bhagwan Singh, Rizwan Cheema, Navneet Dhaliwal, Terrance Hinds, Ben Lister, Kyle Mayers, Brandon McMullen, Shreyas Movva, Mohammad Nabi, Sunil Narine, Junaid Siddiqui, Virandeep Singh, Harmeet Singh Baddhan, Hamza Tariq, Logan van Beek, Mansab Gill, Padam Joshi.

Toronto Nationals: Shaheen Afridi, Saad Bin Zafar, Rassie van der Dussen, Nikhil Dutta, Andries Gous, Rishad Hossain, Nicholas Kirton, Colin Munro, Mohammad Nawaz, Rohit Paudel, Romario Shepherd, Junaid Siddiqui, Dilraj Deol, Armaan Kapoor, Kanwar Mann, Jatinder Matharu, Mohammad Rohid Khan, Jagandeep Singh.

Vancouver Knights: Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Jeremy Gordon, Rishiv Joshi, Sandeep Lamichhane, Dwaine Pretorius, Michael Rippon, Dipendra Singh Airee, Harsh Thaker, Ruben Trumpelmann, Paul van Meekeren, Sarmad Anwar, Mandeep Girdhar, Yuvraj Samra, Shubham Sharma, Ajayveer Singh.

Bangla Tigers Mississauga: Shakib Al Hasan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Dillon Heyliger, Shoriful Islam, Rayyan Pathan, Pargat Singh, Odean Smith, Muhammad Waseem, David Wiese, Hazratullah Zazai, Gurbaz Bajwa, Navjot Dosanjh, Farhan Khan, Nav Pabreja, Ravinder Reddy, Gurpal Sidhu, Tajinder Singh.

Brampton Wolves: David Warner, Carlos Brathwaite, Josh Brown, Aryan Dutt, Jack Jarvis, Muhammad Jawadullah, Aaron Johnson, Abhijai Mansingh, George Munsey, Ravinderpal Singh, Kanwarpal Thagur, Andrew Tye, Beau Webster, Harmandeep Bahia, Kobe Herft, Akhil Kumar, Robin Singh, Samerjeet Singh.