Sym Ayub again got out for a big shotImage Credit Source: PTI
For the Pakistan cricket team, the Asia Cup 2025 has proved to be a bad dream. One, he had to face defeat against India. On that, the Indian players did not join hands with the Pakistani team. Then the ICC also rejected his demand to remove the match referee Andy Picroft and had to play while this referee. But the Pakistani team, a young batsman, had to face embarrassment in private, not even one consecutive 3 times. These batsmen are Syam Ayub, who could not open an account in 3 consecutive matches.
Due to a lot of controversy over the match referee Payakroft, on Wednesday 17 September, Pakistan and UAE’s match started with an hourly delay. The Pakistani team landed for the first batting in this match. The time of the match has changed but the fate of Sym Ayub did not change. Once again, he was dismissed in the first over of the innings. UAE fast bowler Junaid Siddiqui caught Sym Ayub on the third man boundary.
This was the third consecutive time in this Asia Cup, when Ayub was dismissed without opening an account in the first over itself. Earlier, in the match against Oman, he was out on the very first ball. Then in the next match against India, he was dismissed without opening an account on the first ball. Ayub could do so much against UAE that he was not out on the first ball but without opening an account on the second ball. This was the fourth time in the last consecutive T20 innings, when Ayub’s score was 0.
23 -year -old batsman Ayub is not the first Pakistani batsman who has been dismissed in 3 consecutive innings. Prior to them, Mohammad Hafeez (2012) and Abdullah Shafiq (2020-2023) have gone through this embarrassment. Shafiq had failed to open an account in 4 consecutive matches, while his two matches came in 2020 and 2 matches in 2023. At the same time, this was the only third time in T20 International (Full Member), when an opener was out for 0 in 3 consecutive innings. Before Ayub, Hafeez and before him in 2009, Andre Fletcher of West Indies could not open the innings in 3 consecutive matches.