{"id":4412,"date":"2025-04-20T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4412"},"modified":"2025-04-20T00:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T00:00:33","slug":"gillespie-sees-shades-of-anwar-in-ayub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4412","title":{"rendered":"Gillespie sees shades of Anwar in Ayub"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Former Australia pacer and Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie has drawn a striking comparison between star opening batter Saim Ayub and Pakistan&#8217;s legendary left-handed batter, Saeed Anwar.<\/p>\n<p>Having worked closely with Pakistan&#8217;s cricket setup, Gillespie is not the only one to have noticed Ayub&#8217;s elegant strokeplay, composure, and top-order flair\u0097qualities that once defined Anwar&#8217;s glorious era.<\/p>\n<p>During a recent fan interaction on social media, Gillespie&#8217;s comments went viral. &#8220;Saeed Anwar was one of the greatest players. I see some of him in Saim Ayub,&#8221; Gillespie wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Ayub&#8217;s rise over the past 18 months has been remarkable. His seamless transition into international cricket\u0097particularly in T20Is and ODIs\u0097has drawn widespread praise from fans and experts alike.<\/p>\n<p>His absence due to injury during Pakistan&#8217;s Champions Trophy campaign had a noticeable impact on the team&#8217;s overall performance. However, the 22-year-old still has a long journey ahead if he is to come close to Saeed Anwar&#8217;s legacy. Anwar amassed over 13,000 runs across formats and redefined limited-overs batting in his prime.<\/p>\n<p>So far, Saim Ayub has accumulated 1,377 runs across eight Tests, nine ODIs, and 27 T20Is for Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The left-handed opener, currently representing Peshawar Zalmi, made a strong comeback in the 10th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) after recovering from injury, scoring a fifty against Quetta Gladiators.<\/p>\n<p>Ayub suffered a severe ankle fracture during the second Test match against South Africa in 2025 while attempting to stop a boundary. He slipped and twisted his ankle, which led to his exclusion from the national team for several months.<\/p>\n<p>His rehabilitation and medical treatment took place in England. After successfully passing the Pakistan Cricket Board&#8217;s fitness tests, he was cleared to return to competitive cricket and eventually made his comeback in PSL 10.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Australia pacer and Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie has drawn a striking comparison between star opening batter Saim Ayub and Pakistan&#8217;s legendary left-handed batter, Saeed Anwar. Having worked closely with Pakistan&#8217;s cricket setup, Gillespie is not the only one to have noticed Ayub&#8217;s elegant strokeplay, composure, and top-order flair\u0097qualities that once defined Anwar&#8217;s glorious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}