Ramiz Raja: “After getting a start and setting the tempo, they should have finished the match”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ramiz Raja, the ex-Pakistan captain, wants Mohammad Haris and Saim Ayub to start finishing matches after getting off to strong starts.
The 60-year-old, who recently served as chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), sees great potential in the duo and wants them to be as effective as possible.
He doesn’t want to see them waste their starts by getting out as he feels they will be even more of a threat and a selector’s dream if they go on to win matches for Pakistan.
“After getting a start and setting the tempo, they should have finished the match,” Ramiz said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
In the 2023 Pakistan Super League (PSL), Haris and Ayub played for the Peshawar Zalmi.
Haris, 22, finished as the sixth-highest run-scorer with 350 runs in 12 matches, which included two half-centuries, at an average of 31.81 and a strike-rate of 186.17.
Ayub, 21, was one spot below him with 341 runs in 12 games, which included five fifties, at an average of 28.41 and a strike-rate of 165.53.
Both of them got the opportunity to play for Pakistan after PSL 8, featuring in the series against Afghanistan and New Zealand.
Pakistan will now take on Sri Lanka in a two-Test series from July 16 to 28, but neither Haris nor Ayub were 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