Kamran Akmal: “Saim Ayub has been playing for 20 matches, look at his form, other players are also here to play, and they too have come with performances”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has expressed his displeasure towards opener Saim Ayub’s prolonged inability to score runs consistently.
Ayub has featured in 23 T20Is to date, but only managed to make 309 runs at an average of 14.71 and a strike-rate of 122.13.
Akmal noted that there are other players in the team waiting for a chance to prove their worth, but the men in green keep sticking with the 22-year-old even though he isn’t paying dividends for the faith shown in him.
“Saim Ayub has been playing for 20 matches, look at his form, other players are also here to play, and they too have come with performances,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Geo Super.
In Pakistan’s five-match T20I series against New Zealand, Ayub failed to have much of an impact, scoring 57 runs at an average of 14.25 and a strike-rate of 129.54.
He then proceeded to amass 65 runs at an average of 21.66 and a strike-rate of 151.16 in the three-match T20I series against Ireland.
After this, he featured in one T20I against England, but was dismissed for two runs.
Most recently, the Karachi native played in the 2024 T20 World Cup and made 23 runs in two games at an average of 11.50 and a strike-rate of 79.31.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India before claiming back-to-back wins over Canada and Ireland.
Despite triumphing in those two matches, they failed to make it through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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