Chris Gayle: “Saw him [Saim] bat last night and he looked one for the future”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Chris Gayle, the iconic big-hitting West Indies opener, predicted that Saim Ayub would play for Pakistan and was 100 percent correct.
Gayle made the prediction in 2021, saying that the 21-year-old attacking batsman was a future star in the making.
“Saw him [Saim] bat last night and he looked one for the future,” he had said as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
Ayub had an outstanding campaign in the 2023 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he played for the Peshawar Zalmi.
The Karachi-born cricketer amassed 341 runs in 12 matches, which included five half-centuries, at an average of 28.41 and a strike-rate of 165.53.
He subsequently got the chance to play for Pakistan in their limited overs series against Afghanistan and New Zealand.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in July, but Ayub was not selected in the team.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood