Ricky Ponting: “He’s a proper player. I think he’s a real star in the making”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Iconic Australia captain Ricky Ponting has hyped up Pakistan opening batsman Saim Ayub, saying he is a “proper player” and “a real star in the making”.
Ponting was especially impressed with the 22-year-old when he made his Test debut against Australia in January 2024 as he played a more attacking style of cricket.
Since then, Ayub has only featured in T20Is for the men in green, but hasn’t been able to live up to expectations, scoring 309 runs in 23 matches at an average of 14.71 and a strike-rate of 122.13.
In the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Karachi native failed to have an impact as he was limited to 23 runs in two games at an average of 11.50 and a strike-rate of 79.31.
Nonetheless, Ponting believes there is something special about Ayub and has backed him to become a major asset for Pakistan.
“I loved the look of Ayub out here during the Australian summer. He played that Test match in Sydney, I reckon it was and I didn’t know much about him then. When I’m sitting there commentating, I like to know about players and what they can do, so I actually went back and had a look at some of his PSL stuff,” he told The ICC Review.
“He’s a proper player. I think he’s a real star in the making.”
Pakistan lost their first two T20 World Cup matches against the United States of America and India before fighting back to beat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage with a 2-2 record, it was not enough to earn them a spot in 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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