Pity about the rescheduling but we'll have a full-fledged West Indies team touring in June 2022: Ramiz Raja

The T20I series between West Indies and Pakistan ended on December 16. Pakistan won the match after chasing a massive total of 208 runs in 18.5 overs. Mohammad Rizwan, who has made most T20 runs in a calendar year, made 87 runs off 45 deliveries. Along with Babar Azam, he added 158 runs for the first wicket.

However, just before the start of the match, it was reported that five members of the West Indies squad tested positive for Covid-19. A total of four team members, including a non-coaching member, already tested positive when the team arrived in Pakistan. Hence, it was difficult for the West Indies team to participate in the upcoming ODI series.

The ODI series has now been postponed and rescheduled to June 2022. Ramiz Raja, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, hopes that a full-fledged Caribbean side will travel to Pakistan in June to play the remaining matches. He tweeted about Pakistan’s performance and the future of the series on Thursday.

#PAKvWI Very impressive record chase tonight.Self belief & calmness was at the heart of that feat!Great year for Rizwan & he doesn’t have a bad partner in Babar too. Pity about the rescheduling of the ODI series but we will have a full fledged fit WI team for that June encounter.

— Ramiz Raja (@iramizraja) December 16, 2021

‘Great year for Rizwan’ – Ramiz Raja praises Mohammad Rizwan

Rizwan, who made 203 runs in three matches at an average of 67.67 and a strike rate of 159.84, won the player of the series award. It was his fifth award this year, and he equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of winning the most number of Player of the Series awards.

“Great year for Rizwan, and he doesn’t have a bad partner in Babar too. Pity about the rescheduling of the ODI series, but we will have a full-fledged fit West Indies team for that June encounter,” Raja tweeted.

In the third T20I, Pakistan chased down a target of 208 runs, and it was Pakistan’s highest successful chase. Also, it was Pakistan’s second-highest total in the shortest format of the game. Raja was impressed with the way Pakistan played in this game.

“Very impressive record chase tonight. Self-belief and calmness was at the heart of that feat!,” Raja mentioned in his tweet.

Pakistan team has won 20 out of the 29 T20Is played this year and became the first team to achieve such a feat. Rizwan made 2036 runs in T20s and is the first player to score over 2000 T20 runs and over 1000 T20I runs in a calendar year.