Shahid Afridi: “[Saim] you are impressive”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Shahid Afridi, the legendary Pakistan big-hitting all-rounder, admitted he is really impressed with aggressive top order batsman Saim Ayub.
Ayub jumped into 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.
Following this, the 21-year-old was included in the national team for Pakistan’s T20I series against Afghanistan and New Zealand.
Right now, 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.
Afridi admitted that Ayub is incredibly talented and definitely has a big future ahead of him if he keeps on scoring plenty of runs.
“[Saim] you are impressive!” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Pakistan recently beat Sri Lanka 2-0 in a Test series and Afghanistan 3-0 in an ODI series.
Their latest assignment was the Asia Cup, where they demolished Nepal by 238 runs, shared one point with India as their match was washed out, and took down Bangladesh by seven wickets.
A 228-run loss against India followed and was made worse by a two-wicket loss to Sri Lanka via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method, which resulted in the men in green being eliminated from the tournament.
Pakistan will now feature in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, which gets underway on October 5.
Their first game 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