Ian Bishop: “Loving the look of the 21 [year] old Pakistan batter Saim Ayub”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Ian Bishop, the former West Indies fast bowler, believes attacking Pakistan top order batsman Saim Ayub is brimming with incredible potential.
Ayub stole the spotlight during the 2023 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he scored 341 runs in 12 matches for the Peshawar Zalmi, which included five half-centuries, at an average of 28.41 and a strike-rate of 165.53.
The 21-year-old earned a call-up to the national team for his brilliant batting and ended up featuring in the T20I series against New Zealand and Afghanistan.
Currently, he is playing for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and has made 426 runs in 12 matches, which includes three fifties, at an average of 38.72 and a strike-rate of 144.40.
“Loving the look of the 21 [year] old Pakistan batter Saim Ayub,” Bishop said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ayub wasn’t selected for Pakistan’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka or their three-match ODI series against Afghanistan.
He also didn’t make the cut for the Asia Cup, where the men in green began with a 238-run win over Nepal before sharing one point apiece with India as their match was abandoned due to rain.
Heading into the Super Four stage, they continued to impress as they secured a comfortable seven-wicket win over Bangladesh.
However, their unbeaten streak came to an end in their next game against India as they lost by 228 runs.
Still in with a chance to make the Asia Cup final, Pakistan blew it when Sri Lanka defeated them by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Pakistan will now play in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, which starts on October 5.
Their opening match will be against the Netherlands on October 6 in Hyderabad.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali