Follow UsOne of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, Waqar Younis, has suggested that Pakistan should consider dropping Saim Ayub from the playing XI for the Asia Cup 2025 final against India in Dubai on September 28 (Sunday). The young left-hander has struggled with the bat, registering four ducks in six innings in the ongoing tournament, becoming the first top-six batter in history to record four ducks in a single competition.
Ayub began the Asia Cup with three consecutive ducks before finally scoring 21 off 17 in Pakistan’s first Super Four clash against India. He then managed just 2 against Sri Lanka and another duck against Bangladesh on September 25. Overall, Ayub has nine ducks in T20Is across 45 innings, already the second-most for Pakistan.
“Look, I said it after the second duck, I said this guy needs to be benched. It’s not that he is not talented; he is very talented. I think he is the future of Pakistan cricket. But sometimes when things are not going right for you, you just keep going in the shell, keep going down and down, and that’s what is happening here with him. His body language was poor this afternoon when he walked onto the field,” said Younis, as reported by the Indian Express.
“You know, he [Ayub] is a youngster, you really need to look after them sometimes, by just not playing them sometimes. Pakistan kept on playing him, just purely because he can bowl. You don’t need to worry about his bowling; Pakistan needs to worry about his batting. If he is going to give us runs or not. At the moment, it’s not happening. He needs to dig deeper in his game to score a few runs.”
While Ayub has struggled with the bat, scoring just 23 runs at an average of 3.83 and a strike rate of 85.18 in the Asia Cup 2025, he has been effective with the ball. The spinner has claimed eight wickets at an average of 14 and an economy rate of 6.58, despite bowling a significant number of overs in the powerplay.