Pakistan’s cricket team skipper, Babar Azam, will now play under the captaincy of wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan. The Global T20 Canada League franchise, Vancouver Knights, has appointed Rizwan as their new captain.
On Sunday, the franchise announced Rizwan’s new role with a social media post. The announcement included an honorary title for Rizwan, calling him “Sir.” The Vancouver Knights shared, “Hear ye, hear ye! The Vancouver Knights have chosen their captain for GT20 Season 4: Sir Mohammad Rizwan! ????️ With his mighty batting skills and sharp wicketkeeping, he’s ready to lead our charge to victory. Prepare for battle, Knights!”
The Vancouver Knights team also includes notable players such as pacer Mohammad Amir, batsman Asif Ali, New Zealand’s Michael Rippon, South Africa’s Dwaine Pretorius, Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann, and Guyana’s Jeremy Gordon.
GT20 Canada’s Season 4 will kick off on July 25, with the final match scheduled for August 11 in Canada. Seven Pakistani cricketers, including Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Mohammad Nawaz, will participate in this league.
These players were also part of Pakistan’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2024, where the team had an early exit. The league will feature international stars such as Mohammad Nabi, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, David Wiese, Hazratullah Zazai, David Warner, and Carlos Brathwaite.
Montreal Tigers, the defending champions, won the title in 2023 by defeating the Vancouver Knights. Rizwan was part of the Knights last year as well.
Also Read: Pakistani-Origin Cricketer Antum Naqvi Joins Zimbabwe for India T20Is
Complete Squads of 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, as well as Hamza Tariq, Logan van Beek, Mansab Gill, and 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, and Paul van Meekeren, Sarmad Anwar, Mandeep Girdhar, Yuvraj Samra, Shubham Sharma, as well as 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, as well as Ravinderpal Singh, Kanwarpal Thagur, Andrew Tye, Beau Webster, and Harmandeep Bahia, Kobe Herft, Akhil Kumar, Robin Singh, Samerjeet Singh.