Shaheen Shah Afridi: “He has the ability and hunger to do well for Pakistan”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi feels aggressive opener Saim Ayub has what it takes to “do well” at the international level.
Ayub has been a dominant force on the domestic circuit in Pakistan, but he hasn’t really been able to replicate that success when playing for the national team.
Recently, the 21-year-old Karachi-born batsman made his debut in the third Test against Australia and scored 0 and 33.
He followed that up with 39 runs in four T20Is against New Zealand at an average of 9.75 and a strike-rate of 130.
While he has wowed people at times with his attacking style of batting, his failures to score big runs consistently are not a concern for Afridi at the moment.
“He has the ability and hunger to do well for Pakistan,” the pace spearhead was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Ayub is now playing for the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL), while Afridi is captaining the Lahore Qalandars.
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
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
[TS_Poll id=”111″]