Babar Azam: “Sometimes you need to give some extra time to special talents like him. Hopefully, he will do well in the future”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is willing to invest time and faith in “special talents” like opening batsman Saim Ayub, even though he has failed to fire at the international level.
Ayub has represented his country in one Test so far and made scores of 0 and 33.
In T20Is, the 21-year-old has accumulated 284 runs in 20 matches at an average of 15.77 and a strike-rate of 130.87.
While Azam would like to see Ayub start making big scores, he knows the youngster is still in the infancy stages of his career and has backed him to shine in the near future.
“Sometimes you need to give some extra time to special talents like him. Hopefully, he will do well in the future,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand in April 2024, Ayub scored 57 runs in five games at an average of 14.25 and a strike-rate of 129.54.
He then took part in the three-match T20I series against Ireland and finished with 65 runs at an average of 21.66 and a strike-rate of 151.16.
Next up for Pakistan will be four T20Is against England from May 22 to May 30.
Afterwards, they will be in action in the T20 World Cup, which will be held in the West Indies and United States of America from June 1 to 29.
Pakistan’s first T20 World Cup game will be against the United States of America in Dallas on June 6.
Pakistan Squad for Ireland and England T20I Series: Babar Azam (capt), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan
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