Ahmed Shehzad: “It was your responsibility to take care of Saim Ayub’s development, but now his career is over at such a young age. People are criticising Ayub after just 25 games”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan batsman Ahmed Shehzad believes opener Saim Ayub’s international career “is over” as he has failed to live up to expectations.
He noted that the 22-year-old is already being criticised by people despite only having played 23 T20Is, where he has scored 309 runs at an average of 14.71 and a strike-rate of 122.13.
Shehzad pointed out that limited overs captain Babar Azam is somewhat responsible as it is his duty to “take care of Saim Ayub’s development”.
“It was your responsibility to take care of Saim Ayub’s development, but now his career is over at such a young age. People are criticising Ayub after just 25 games,” he said on the talk show Haarna Mana Hai as quoted by NDTV.
Ayub represented Pakistan in the 2024 T20 World Cup and scored 23 runs in two games at an average of 11.50 and a strike-rate of 79.31.
The men in green began their campaign with consecutive losses to the United States of America and India before bouncing back to take down Canada and Ireland.
Even though they won those two matches, they ended up being eliminated in the group stage of the tournament.
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