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Follow UsInnings - 21
Average - 14.71
Strike rate - 122.13
That’s what Saim Ayub, touted as one of the best young batting talents in Pakistan, has managed to attain in his T20I career so far. He couldn’t even score a fifty in the format. In the only Test he played, he could just manage 33 runs in the game.
Safe to say, looking at these stats, no one would bet on Ayub being one of Pakistan’s saviours in a Test where they are already on the backfoot with three quick wickets. Unless, of course, Yudhishthir’s soul possesses your body.
Moreover, you would also have extended your neck out if you had believed that on a Rawalpindi track that was bouncing and seaming initially, it would be a 22-year-old with just 16 first-class games whose resolute defence and measured stroke play would not only take Pakistan into safety but also allow them the chance to build the platform for a big score.
However, not only did the Karachi-born do all those things, but how he scored those runs established that this youngster is special. He’s not just a flashy stroke maker. Rather, he’s the kind who does have the fortitude to grind it out.
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“I only told him [Saim Ayub] one thing,” analyst Prasanna Lara, who had worked with Ayub in the Caribbean Premier League, told Cricket.com.
“Look, you are not someone who will hit sixes from ball one; that’s what you are trying to do to prove a point. Your game is all about taking time, and you are not a power-hitter. You have a graceful game, so you need some balls to adjust to the conditions.
If you bat well for the first 15 balls, you will have a strike-rate of 130 after 50 balls. From the next day, he used to practice the same way. He used to play to the merit of the ball for the first 15 balls, and then he used to attack.”
Prasanna's advice might be for the T20 format; however, the essentials of what he remarked about Ayub—the graceful game, the ability to cash in after a cautious start, and playing on merit without forcing pace—were all there in his 56 off 98 deliveries.
After being 16/3, Bangladeshi pacers, especially Hasan Mahmud, kept dangling the carrot of a full, drive-worthy delivery in front of the youngster. However, the impetuousness of his youth didn’t dominate over the discipline hours and hours of practice would have taught him.
He showed the same class he displayed in the 2023 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy (Pakistan’s premier domestic red ball tournament), where he scored 553 runs in eight innings with a might average of 79, which included a 203 and 109 in the final of the championship.
Shoriful Islam and Mahmud were in the middle of a tight spell, and Ayub and Saud Shakeel let them bowl to them rather than attack. What Ayub did even better was not shy away from using the sweep against Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s off-spin and swept him repeatedly for runs on the leg side, where 40% of his runs came.
However, it was an on-drive that he hit against pacer Nahid Rana that was his best shot of the day, showing his control and his intent to attack Bangladesh's third pacer.
The result of such batting from him was obvious. By the Tea interval, Pakistan were already back on their feet. He did get dismissed chasing a wide one from Mahmud right after a drinks break towards the end of the day and scored one of the most classic Test fifties by a Pakistani batter in recent memory.
Some might feel that it’s just 56 runs on a track that overall wasn’t a bad track to bat on once you are set. However, some fifties are bigger than other fifties, and this one by the 22-year-old was like a trailer for what’s to come in a career that has the potential to be remembered for a long time.
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