Picture a young, left-handed batter: he plays cuts and drives with the elegance of Saeed Anwar and has the ability to play unconventional shots like ramps and no look shots, sending the ball flying over the ropes. This young player is Pakistan’s Saim Ayub.
He is an incredible talent and he’s shown the selectors that their faith in him was not misplaced. He’s scored 3 centuries in ODI cricket, all of them being in winning causes. His first century in international cricket came off only 53 deliveries against Zimbabwe in late 2024.
Looking at these accolades and his portfolio as a player, you would expect him to be an asset for Pakistan in T20Is especially given his performances in the CPL and PSL. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to make the same impact in the format.
Saim Ayub made his debut in 2023 and has been given a long rope. Some will point out that he wasn’t able to seize the opportunities that he was presented with – they were correct; in his first 11 innings he was averaging 14.7 with a strike rate of 122 without a single half century.
His first half century came in style. This was by far, the best innings he had played in his international career up until that point; the early wicket in the powerplay and a middle order collapse would put any youngster under pressure, but Saim was unfazed. He went on to score an unbeaten 98 off 57 smashing four sixes and eleven fours against South Africa in Centurion.
The Asia Cup was a new low for Saim Ayub; his batting average was only 5.28. His bowling, however, was completely different- his economy rate was 6.40 and he took 8 wickets at 16 apiece.
Back to the topic at hand, in the Asia Cup, Saim was dismissed for a duck on 4 occasions. The explosive southpaw has a tendency to be dismissed without scoring runs, recording 10 ducks in his career so far, the most for Pakistanis in T20Is, which is not an ideal record to hold.
Despite this, I do believe there is a reason behind his failures. Pakistan uses him as an opener which on paper looks like his natural position, given this is where he is the most successful in franchise and one day cricket.
Although, there is one flaw in his game which he cannot overcome by changing his technique or his mindset. That weakness is playing against the new ball. The stats highlight the discrepancy: he averages 17.05 at a strike rate of 116.55 in the first three overs of the match and afterwards he’s averaging 25 at a strike rate of 144.17.
Typically, in T20s an opener looks to get settled by rotating strike in the first few overs and then they’d look to attack in the rest of the powerplay.
Saim isn’t able to do this; he has been dismissed 9 times in the first over- the second most in the first over after Ireland’s Paul Stirling with 15. His control percentages are also lower than against the new ball and afterwards 69.78 compared to 72.71%.
These differences don’t look much but he plays and misses a lot as well as edging the ball. He looks to survive the new ball rather than attack and he often fails at doing so.
The reason why Saim Ayub has been so successful in ODIs is because the powerplay is 10 overs, allowing for the batter to survive without putting runs on the board. In contrast, in T20 (six over powerplay) an opener should look to score runs from the first ball, either by rotating strike or hitting boundaries.
Even in the aforementioned unbeaten 98, he looked a lot more comfortable after the third over and began to take on bowlers. The innings that made me realise this was an issue was the first T20 vs South Africa in 2025.
Against the new ball, he scored 6(13) but then would go on to score 31(15) after that phase. Then I rewatched highlights of his other innings in T20Is and ODIs. The first innings that put him on the map was in his second ODI, scoring a blistering 82 off 71 at Adelaide. He had only scored 7(27) against the new ball.
I wanted to make sure it was not just an anomaly, so I watched his century vs South Africa in the first ODI; again, he took a while to pick up. He was 5(12) in the first few overs, which obviously isn’t as drastic but it certainly is slow.
I found another example of when he had a slow start in T20, against the West Indies he scored 11 off 12 and then scored 45 off 26. There were instances in ODIs where he was able to score off the first overs in 2024 (His first and third centuries at Bulawayo and Centurion), however there was minimal movement and true bounce so conditions were easier.
In the Caribbean during the 2025 series against the West Indies; the new ball moved a lot and he wasn’t as successful, only averaging 9.33 that series. The first ODI against Sri Lanka in 2025 at Rawalpindi, where the new ball was also moving, he only scored 6 runs off 14 runs.
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