VIDEO | Superman Mohammad Rizwan dives to his right to gobble up ball headed towards first slip

It has been quite outrageous how easy Mohammad Rizwan has made wicket-keeping look, all summer. After Windies and England keepers Shane Dowrich and Jos Buttler struggled to cope with the wobble, deviation, late movement and the weird last-minute changes of the trajectory of the ball, Mohammad Rizwan was expected to follow their path and fall into the same pit but the Pakistan wicket-keeper, instead, in the first two Tests, put out a flawless display that made fans and experts drop their jaws. And on the first day of the third Test at the Ageas Bowl, the Peshawar-born gloveman came up with a moment of magic to further enhance his growing reputation as one of the best young wicket-keepers in the world.

With England 114/2, with both Joe Root and Zak Crawley looking well settled, young Naseem Shah made something out of nothing and squared the English skipper with ‘the perfect delivery’. The unplayable delivery took the outside edge of Root’s bat, but while the ball, in itself, was the stuff of dreams, the dismissal was enhanced further by Rizwan’s outrageous ability. 

As the ball squared up Root and took the outside edge of his bat, it was headed straight to Babar Azam at first slip, who was bracing himself to catch the ball to his left. But astoundingly, out of nowhere, Rizwan put in a stretched dive towards his right, and gobbled up the ball safely, even as it was deviating away from him with pace. The keeper, eventually, gave the perfect finishing touch - to both the ball and the catch - by landing safely and athletically to complete the dismissal.

Starting from the ball and then the catch, the whole sequence was truly the stuff of dreams, and the same was acknowledged by Root, who sported a “well, that was too good for me” smile as he walked back to the pavilion.