22-Year-Old Pakistani Batter Surpasses Babar Azam with Third Century in Just 9 Matches

New Delhi: The Pakistan cricket team was facing a slump for the past couple of years but they are gradually overcoming their challenges. Particularly in ODI cricket, there has been a noticeable improvement in the team's performance as they are securing victories consistently. A major contributor to this resurgence is the 22-year-old batsman, Saim Ayub, who made his ODI debut just a month and a half ago and has been scoring runs consistently ever since. Ayub played a pivotal role in Pakistan's recent success, including scoring a magnificent century in the third ODI match against South Africa. This marks the third century in Ayub's burgeoning career.

In the third and final match of the ODI series in Johannesburg, the Pakistani team was batting first and once again opener Abdullah Shafique was out in the first over. Shafique failed to open his account in all three matches of this series. Despite this, young left-handed opener Ayub was not affected and he continued to attack the South African bowlers. Ayub made a great partnership with Babar Azam and soon completed his half-century.

Second century in the series:
Even after Babar was out, Ayub’s aggressive batting continued and he soon scored his third century. Ayub completed this century in just 91 balls and during this he hit 13 fours as well as 2 sixes. Although he could not take his innings much further and was out on 101 runs, but before leaving he achieved a special feat. This is his second century in this series and he became only the second Pakistani batsman to score 2 centuries in an ODI series against South Africa on its home ground. Before him, Fakhar Zaman had done this feat.

Leaving Babar Azam behind:
Not only this, Ayub, who made his ODI debut on the Australia tour last month, scored his third century in just the 9th match of his career. In this way, he scored 3 ODI centuries in fewer matches than Babar. Babar had achieved this feat in 18 matches. In this way, Ayub has become the second batsman to score 3 ODI centuries for Pakistan in the least number of matches. This record is in the name of Imam ul Haq, who had done this in just 8 matches. Ayub’s first ODI century came against Zimbabwe on 28 November. So far, he has scored 515 runs in 9 matches at an average of 64.