Mohammad Rizwan signs contract in Sussex for County Championship, T20 Blast
Mohammad Rizwan will play county cricket for the first time in 2022 after signing a contract for Sussex between April and mid-July.
Rizwan will arrive in England on April 5th after completing the Australian tour to Pakistan, and will be available for most of the County Championship season and the entire T20 Blast.
He will open batting alongside Luke Wright in the Blast, replacing Phil Salt - who has gone to Lancashire - as top keeper / batter and replacing Ben Brown on the championship team after filing his application for a dismissal contract two years earlier.
Rizwan is the fourth Pakistani international to sign a district for 2022 after Shan Masood (Derbyshire), Zafar Gohar (Gloucestershire) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (Middlesex). It wouldn't be a surprise if more players followed suit.
Ian Salisbury, Sussex's Championship and Head Coach over 50, said his former teammates Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq Rizwan provided character references, suggesting that he would be "a wonderful addition to our dressing room".
"I would be lying if I said I wouldn't be disappointed to learn that we were going to lose a Ben Brown quality player," said Salisbury. "Now the time has come, we have to look ahead and I'm happy that we were able to act quickly last week to secure the service of one of the world's best goalkeepers as a replacement.
"Mohammad's top and test records speak for themselves and it is a huge coup to welcome him to Sussex for much of next season's championship. He and Travis [Head] are just the seasoned international cricketers who are our up-and-coming cricketers Boys can. " learn a lot from. "
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Sussex won the wooden spoon at the county championship last year, finishing bottom of Division Three with a young team. Alongside Rizwan, they signed Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Steven Finn this winter, and Travis Head will return as captain - and the championship's other foreign champion - despite struggling in his first season at Hove.
James Kirtley, the Sussex T20 coach, described Rizwan as "one of the most exciting cricketers in the world" and said he was "an excellent substitute" after Salt's departure. "I'm really excited to fill this void with an international of his caliber," he said. "He is a natural leader and a player who will inspire. I am delighted to welcome him to Sussex as the latest in a long line of successful cricketers to have played for Pakistan and Sussex."