Pakistan Wicketkeeper-Batsman Clinches Elite Record That Eluded India's MS Dhoni

Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan registered his maiden Twenty20 International (T20I) century during the first T20I match against South Africa on Thursday and claimed an elite record that eluded former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni.

Rizwan, who became the Player of the Match, scored 104 off 63 deliveries as he helped Pakistan post a respectable total of 169 for 6 in 20 overs. In reply, South Africa fell short by three runs as the hosts went 1-0 up in the ongoing three-match T20I series.

Rizwan became only the second wicketkeeper-batsman, after former New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum, to score a century in all three formats of the game. McCullum, who represented New Zealand for 14 years between 2002 and 2016, had scored five Test centuries, three One-Day International (ODI) hundreds, and one T20I century. Dhoni has never scored a T20 century.

Rizwan, who made his international debut in 2015, has so far scored two ODI hundreds, and a century each in Test and T20I.

The former New Zealand captain is counted among the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the history of the game. McCullum, who kept wickets for the BlackCaps between 2002 and 2013, scored 8,212 runs in that period, registering nine centuries.

In terms of most runs scored by a wicketkeeper-batsman, across formats, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara is at the top of the list with 17,840 runs in 464 matches. While Sangakkara recorded 30 international tons, he never managed to score a T20I century. He scored 1,382 runs in 56 T20Is for Sri Lanka, with 78 being his highest. He was a part of the Sri Lanka side that defeated India in the final of the T20 World Cup 2014.

World Cup-winning captain Dhoni is the current second leading run-scorer among keepers after Sangakarra. Dhoni, who retired from international cricket last year, scored 17,266 runs in 538 matches, across all formats, including 16 centuries (10 in ODIs and 6 in Tests). Next on the list is Australia's legendary keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist, ahead of Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim and South Africa's Mark Boucher.