Pakistan white-ball captain Mohammad Rizwan opened up about opening batter Saim Ayub’s absence from the squad for the PAK v AUS T20I series.
A day earlier, the Greenshirts faced a 29-run defeat in the opening T20I after none of the top six batters managed to reach the double figures.
While chasing a massive 94-run target in seven overs, Pakistan managed 64-9, losing by a margin of 29 runs.
Several were left surprised after seeing opening batter Saim Ayub absent from the Playing XI for the game.
The left-handed batter was instrumental in Pakistan’s successful chases in the last two games of the three-match ODI PAK v AUS series.
Now, Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan has broken his silence on Ayub’s exclusion from the national T20I squad.
Responding to a question regarding Saim Ayub not making it to the final Playing XI, Rizwan said that the squads for the tour had been announced before the Pakistan team departed for Australia.
While the opening batter was included in the ODI squad, he was left out of the T20I squad for reasons unknown.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Rizwan did not reveal the reason behind leaving Ayub out of the T20I squad for the PAK v AUS series.
It is worth mentioning here that the opening batter is part of the Pakistan ODI squad for the Zimbabwe tour, however, he is not included in the T20I squad.
Pakistan Squad for Australia Tour
ODI SQUAD: Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah (WK), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
T20I SQUAD: Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah, Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Bin Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim, Usman Khan.
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe Tour
ODI SQUAD: Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah (WK), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani and Tayyab Tahir.
T20I SQUAD: Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah (WK), Jahandad Khan, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Sufyan Moqim, Tayyab Tahir and Usman Khan.