Babar Azam: “I’m still waiting [for] Saim Ayub. He is different”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan white-ball captain Babar Azam has admitted that he is “still waiting” for opening batsman Saim Ayub to showcase his true potential.
Ayub has been a dominant force in domestic cricket, but has not yet been able to replicate that level of success when playing for the men in green.
The 22-year-old has represented his country in 23 T20Is and scored 309 runs at an average of 14.71 and a strike-rate of 122.13.
Most recently, he was involved in the 2024 T20 World Cup, where he has unable to have much of an impact as he was restricted to 23 runs in two games at an average of 11.50 and a strike-rate of 79.31.
Despite not having lived up to expectations so far, Azam remains confident that Ayub will be a massive asset for Pakistan in the future as he is a “different” player.
“I’m still waiting [for] Saim Ayub. He is different,” the 29-year-old said on legendary South Africa batsman AB de Villiers’ YouTube channel.
Pakistan lost to the United States of America and India in the T20 World Cup before rebounding to beat Canada and Ireland.
Even though they ended the group stage with a 2-2 record, the men in green failed to book their spot in the Super Eights.
Next up for Pakistan will be a two-match Test series against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi and Karachi from August 21 to September 3.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal (subject to fitness), Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi
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