Mohammad Rizwan Is to Blame’: Urooj Mumtaz Criticizes Pakistan Captain Following Defeat Against India

Former Pakistan women’s captain Urooj Mumtaz criticized skipper Mohammad Rizwan for playing too many dot balls in the middle overs, which ultimately led to their six-wicket defeat against India in the 2025 Champions Trophy clash in Dubai. Although Rizwan scored 46 runs, making him Pakistan’s second-highest run-scorer as the team posted 241 in 49.4 overs, he took 77 balls to achieve that score and played 29 dot balls between the 11th and 24th overs. Pakistan’s slowdown in the middle overs began just after the power-play, which ended at 52/2, with their overall dot ball percentage standing at 48%.

“Rizwan, time and again, is at fault for consuming too many dot deliveries. Then there is one release shot that comes out. He was on 40-odd from something like 70 deliveries at the point where he looked like taking another release shot,” said Urooj.

“He was 30 off 68 (24 off 53) at one point when he hit that one four. Saud (Shakeel), on the other hand, is not the usual aggressor; it is Rizwan who is normally the aggressor when he does get going and does get set,” Urooj added while speaking to ESPNcricinfo.

Rizwan was involved in a 104-run partnership with Saud Shakeel, but it took 144 balls to achieve that. Urooj also felt that Rizwan’s slow pace put pressure on left-handed batter Shakeel to break free.

“I think Rizwan, in his 46 off 77 – a strike rate of 59 – just wasn’t good enough because we’re talking about a team where the best batter (Babar Azam) is obviously out of form and hasn’t been churning out those big runs… and he got out early. Imam (had) that unfortunate run-out.”

“So it was down to Rizwan as captain to step up and show that brave attitude. Maybe even not just trying to botch everything down, but perhaps better strike rotation, (the lack of) which I thought was a massive fault, and probably applied a little bit more pressure on Saud as well,” she concluded.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)