Asia cup

Dubai [UAE], September 27 (ANI): Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha has advocated for misfiring Saim Ayub to serve the country for the next 10 years and exuded confidence in the young southpaw’s ability to go all guns blazing against arch-rival India in the Asia Cup final in Dubai on Sunday.

Saim has been on a dreadful run with the bat throughout the six appearances he has made in the tournament. Out of the six fixtures, he has returned without troubling the scorers in four of those. While on the two occasions when he managed to avoid a duck, the 23-year-old has notched 23 runs across both innings.

Fans and former cricketers have called for Ayub’s axing from the final XI. Even though the lean patch continues to haunt Saim, the Pakistan skipper has assured that the management will continue to back the youngster until the situation dictates a forceful change.

“Saim is a player who can serve Pakistan for the next 10 years, and I am really hoping that he does. You have to back such individuals until you get to a situation where you have to change,” Salman said on the eve of the final while speaking to reporters.

While Saim has endured a torrid run with the bat, he has made up for the scratchy performances with his off-spin. He has eight scalps under his belt and is the joint third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Salman believes Saim’s all-around performance will reflect in his batting output in the title-deciding clash against India.

“But you have seen his bowling and fielding. He is contributing in every game. There is no game where he has not made a contribution. He could not perform like that in batting. And I am fully confident that he will play well in the final,” he added.

Apart from Saim, even skipper Salman has toiled to meet the demands of the T20 format. His underwhelming strike rate and lack of runs have sparked debate about his position in the team. Salman’s predecessors, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, were left out of the format due to their mediocre strike rates in the shortest format of cricket.

Salman acknowledged that he has yet to meet the standards. However, he subtly defended the lack of power-hitting by emphasing that playing according to the situation is more prominent than striking at 150.

“My performance is not up to the mark as it should be. I have an idea and I am working on it. Strike rate is vital in T20, but at the end of the day, you have to see what the team and the situation demand at a particular time. It is not necessary that you have to play with a 150 strike rate, nor does the pitch or the situation demand it. So, I think you have to play with the situation,” he said.

India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Pakistan: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Afridi, Sufyan Moqim. (ANI)

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