Fakhar Zaman: “If I was the captain or if it was in my hands, I would never drop Saim Ayub or Azam Khan from any T20 team”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan top order batsman Fakhar Zaman insisted if he were captain, he would “never drop” the power-hitting duo of Saim Ayub and Azam Khan from the T20I team.
He believes both players have a lot of talent and can be major assets to the men in green in the shortest format.
Ayub has featured in 12 T20Is to date and scored 162 runs at an average of 14.72 and a strike-rate of 124.61.
As for Azam, he has mustered 29 runs in eight T20Is at an average of 4.83 and a strike-rate of 90.62.
In the recent five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Ayub finished with 39 runs in four games at an average of 9.75, while Azam accumulated 22 runs at an average of 7.33.
Despite their subpar performances, Zaman feels that they should continue being given chances as dropping them will do nothing but dent their confidence.
“If I was the captain or if it was in my hands, I would never drop Saim Ayub or Azam Khan from any T20 team,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Zaman is now playing for the Lahore Qalandars in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Ayub and Azam are representing the Peshawar Zalmi and Islamabad United respectively.
Lahore Qalandars Squad for PSL 9: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Rassie van der Dussen, Haris Rauf, David Wiese, Sahibzada Farhan, Sikandar Raza, Abdullah Shafique, Zaman Khan, Mirza Tahir Baig, Mohammad Imran, Ahsan Hafeez, Dan Lawrence, Jahandad Khan, Syed Faridoun, Shai Hope, Kamran Ghulam, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Tayyab Abbas
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph
Islamabad United Squad for PSL 9: Shadab Khan (captain), Naseem Shah, Jordan Cox, Imad Wasim, Azam Khan, Tymal Mills, Faheem Ashraf, Alex Hales, Colin Munro, Rumman Raees, Matthew Forde, Salman Ali Agha, Qasim Akram, Shahab Khan, Hunain Shah, Ubaid Shah, Shamyl Hussain, Obed McCoy, Haider Ali, Muhammad Waseem
[TS_Poll id=”111″]