Pakistan’s star wicketkeeper batter, Azam Khan, took to his Instagram stories on Friday (December 13) to post for teammate Saim Ayub after the latter scored an unbeaten 98 runs for the Men in Green in the team’s second T20I against South Africa, played at SuperSport Park, Centurion. The left-handed batter batted No. 3 in low-scoring formats and opened the innings for the Men in Green in a similar format with Babar Azam’s absence at SuperSport Park. He scored 98 runs with 57 balls. During his number, Ayub thumped 11 fours and 5 sixes and helped contribute to the 206 runs for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs.
In the Instagram post now going viral on the internet, Azam, who last played for Pakistan in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, praised Ayub’s knock, stating, “When you give players consistent opportunities, that’s when they have their shots at their best form.”
As a result, Pakistan were supposed to have an uphill climb in this critical match, but another reason for that was Ayub. However, even that was all in vain, as the match was easily won by the South African team with Reeza Hendricks’ debut T20I century (117 runs off 63 balls) guiding the chase of 207 runs in 19.3 overs at a loss of just 3 wickets.
Though questions on him still linger, Ayub has stood strong among many promising young cricketers in the circuit who are always at the end of their thirties or simply beginning their twenties, marred with inconsistencies at the start of their career, but the Pakistan team management still kept him and continued providing opportunities to play in all formats until now he has finally started to pay-off and is among the top performers of all formats for Pakistan.
The 22-year-old cricketer from Karachi hit 113 runs from just 62 balls for Pakistan in an ODI against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last month, thus becoming the second Pakistani batter after Shahid Afridi to hit a century in less than 60 balls for the Men in Green in the 50-over format.
