Saim Ayub Stays Humble Despite Rizwan’s ‘Superstar’ Comments

Young Pakistani batter Saim Ayub plays down the label of “superstar” that wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan has given him. Despite facing challenges with the Comilla Victorians in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Rizwan sees a promising future for Ayub in Pakistani cricket.

In a press briefing during the BPL, Rizwan said that playing in leagues like the CPL and BPL would help Ayub get used to different playing conditions.

We believe that Saim Ayub is the next superstar from Pakistan. If he goes to CPL or plays the BPL, he will be used to those conditions [and] get confidence from here, [read situations] well. If he learns from here, it is fantastic. He can apply it in the Pakistan team as well.

Despite his grounded attitude and awareness of the learning curve ahead, Saim acknowledges the necessity for significant improvements in his game.

The 21-year-old batter didn’t meet expectations while playing for Durdanto Dhaka, only scoring 77 runs in five matches with an average of 15.40.

Earlier, in a conversation with ESPNCricinfo, the left-hand batter said he realizes there’s much more he needs to achieve internationally.

He also mentioned that there’s a lot for him to learn and many areas of his game he needs to enhance to become dominant and focus on making those improvements.

Saim also pointed out that he learned a lot from his mistakes. Top cricket players have told me that you learn more from mistakes than from success.

Furthermore, he is glad he faced setbacks early on because now he understands the standards he needs to meet. If he had early success, he wouldn’t have improved in those important areas.

While concluding his discussion, the young batter mentioned he loves playing Test matches, T20Is, and ODIs equally and wants to play all three formats because legends do. Playing red-ball cricket makes playing white-ball cricket a bit easier.