Pakistan legend Waqar Younis has expressed strong criticism about Saim Ayub’s recent form in Asia Cup 2025. He was dismissed for a duck for the fourth time in the five matches he has played in the tournament. Even though he has performed decently with the ball – taking six wickets, but his batting has been miserable.
Speaking on SonyLiv, Waqar Younis mentioned that he needs to be benched as nothing is going right for him.
“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.”
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“You know, he 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.”
Pakistan won the match against Bangladesh to secure their spot in the final. Pakistan suffered a catastrophic batting collapse, trailing at 71 for 6 in 13.3 overs. Mohammad Haris came to the rescue by scoring 31 off 23 deliveries, guiding the team to 135 for 8. After the match, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha could lauded his bowling side and also said that their team is good enough to beat anyone.
Now the Men in Green will be playing against India in the Asia Cup 2025 final. This is also the first time the two teams will be playing the final against each other in the history of Asia Cup.
