Ramiz Raja labels Saim Ayub ‘undercooked’ as opener

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has slammed opening batter Saim Ayub for his inconsistent performance and labelled him ‘undercooked’ after the Green Shirts’ loss against England in the second T20I. 

Saim Ayub continued his poor run, falling for only two runs while chasing 184. He has scored 286 runs in 19 T20I innings so far at a strike-rate of 127.67.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ramiz Raja questioned Ayub’s place as an opener and urged Pakistan to revert to the opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

“First, Saim Ayub coming as an opener. I don’t think Pakistan should continue with Saim. He has been given too many chances and you have to do better in [international] cricket. He is undercooked,” said Raja.

“You need to revert to the opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam because that is Pakistan’s strength and they understand each other’s game. The entire combination has been disturbed due to Saim.”

The former chairman also advised pace bowler Shaheen Afridi to develop more variations to put more pressure on the batters irrespective of the conditions.

“Second, Shaheen Shah Afridi’s bowling. Look, if the ball isn’t swinging and he bowls at full length, then he gets bashed,” he added.

“He needs to develop length ball and change of pace especially when he is not getting much from the pitch. Even today, he didn’t bowl perfectly with the new ball and [England] escaped pressure.”

Ramiz Raja also raised concerns over Azam Khan’s batting against pace bowlers, stating that he needs to improve otherwise teams will exploit this weakness and will further trouble him.

“And then, Azam Khan’s batting against pace is problematic. With the team, as big teams will analyse him, they will use short balls against him, and they will make him come out of his comfort zone. His strike rate against spin is very good but not against pace,” he stated.