Shaheen Shah Afridi: “Saim Ayub is another. Although he couldn’t perform the way it was expected of him, he has the ability to serve Pakistan well”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
T20I captain Shaheen Shah Afridi is confident that big-hitting opening batsman Saim Ayub can “serve Pakistan well” as he is brimming with talent.
Ayub was an unstoppable force in the recent domestic season and earned a call-up to the Test team for the three-match series against Australia.
He got the chance to make his debut in the third Test in Sydney, where he scored 0 and 33.
Following that, he featured in Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand and mustered 39 runs in four games at an average of 9.75 and a strike-rate of 130.
Shaheen admitted that the 21-year-old didn’t meet expectations due to his string of low scores, but backed the Karachi native to stamp his authority in the near future.
“Saim Ayub is another. Although he couldn’t perform the way it was expected of him, he has the ability to serve Pakistan well,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Ayub recently played for the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and made 345 runs in 11 games, which included two fifties, at an average of 31.36 and a strike-rate of 157.53.
As for Afridi, he captained the Lahore Qalandars and took 14 wickets in nine matches at an average of 22.14 and an economy rate of 8.61.
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
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