Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan says players face bio-bubble fatigue, need break before T20 WC

Pakistan’s test vice-captain, Mohammad Rizwan, spoke about the life of cricketers in a bio-bubble, saying that it exposes players to mental stress. Rezwan believes the players need a break from international cricket to be fresh for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the UAE.

“It is not easy remaining in the bio-bubble all the time and we have been playing a lot of cricket in the last year and more. It is good for us but at the same time it becomes a mental strain on the players as well,” he said during a virtual session on Thursday.

Pakistan lost the opening Test against the West Indies by one wicket and Rizwan said it was disappointing.

“The bottom line is we lost the Test after coming so close to winning it and it hit us and we are now looking to bounce back strongly in the second Test,” he said.

Rizwan also said that time has come to see which players in the team were able to make an impact to the eventual result when playing in pressure situations.

“I think it is also important to look at players who make small but game-changing contributions in a match. We need such impact players.” Rizwan said playing short two-Test series in recent times has been challenging for the team because it is difficult to give a proper run to players and judge them.

He was referring to the continued poor form of opener, Imran Butt in the first Test.

Rizwan said it is not easy to build a consistent team in such a short series, although he isn’t worried about how Pakistan will fare in the ICC World Test Championships as a lot of cricket still remains to be played.

“Our main focus now is to level this series by winning the second game and getting equal points from it.”