Jason Gillespie: “Saeed Anwar was one of the greatest players. I see some of him in Saim Ayub”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie sees flashes of Saeed Anwar in opening batsman Saim Ayub.
Ayub has been gaining a significant amount of attention as of late, especially when he caught fire during Pakistan’s tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa towards the end of 2024, where he notched up three ODI centuries and a career-best 98 not out in T20Is.
A fractured ankle halted the 23-year-old’s momentum and sidelined him for months before he eventually returned at the 2025 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he amassed 174 runs in 10 matches for the Peshawar Zalmi, which included a top score of 50, at an average of 17.40 and a strike-rate of 125.17.
Despite an underwhelming performance in PSL 10, Gillespie knows how talented Ayub is and feels the Karachi native is following in the footsteps of Anwar.
“Saeed Anwar was one of the greatest players. I see some of him in Saim Ayub,” he was quoted as saying by A Sports.
After PSL 10, Ayub made his international comeback as he featured in Pakistan’s three-match T20I series against Bangladesh and accumulated 49 runs at an average of 16.33 and a strike-rate of 144.11.
The men in green won the series 3-0.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh T20I Series: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abbas Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper) and Saim Ayub
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