Watch: Nasser Hussain slams PCB over Saim Ayub selection

The former England captain, Nasser Hussain, feels that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had disrespected Test cricket by bringing in Saim Ayub as an opener for the third Test of the series against England at Edgbaston, despite the left-handed batter having no recent experience of playing first-class cricket.

Pakistan were bundled out for just 133 runs in the first innings as none of the batters were able to celebrate their fifties in the scorecard. In the second innings, they were 0/2 after just four balls as Ollie Robinson went through the top order of the visitors.

Nasser Hussain's full comments — Why he called out PCB's selection call

Nasser pointed out how Ayub scored a century during the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2026 but didn’t feature in any domestic red-ball game, which was never going to be enough for him to tackle Robinson, Jofra Archer, and others in the UK.

Watch Nasser Hussain's comments here-

“The truth is he shouldn't be here. He came from the CPL and hasn't played first-class cricket in some time. I don't know who thinks it's the right thing to fly someone over from foreign conditions, playing a completely different format, and think they're going to be fine in these conditions against a Dukes ball, against Ollie Robinson and England's bowling attack.” Hussain said on Sky Sports’ post-show.

“It is just a sort of disrespect and disregard for Test match cricket. Test match cricket, as any cricketer will tell you, is the toughest format. Batting at the top of the order in England is the toughest task, and you just feel you can fly someone in from some part of the world and go, Good luck.” He addressed.

The former England captain blamed the casual approach and the wrong decision-making of the players and the coaches. He felt that the manner in which the board operates would never give the respect the longest format deserves.

“Virender Sehwag tried it on this ground, if you remember... they flew him in. Virender Sehwag got a pair, and that's Virender Sehwag, who's a better, more experienced player than Saim. But also, whoever thought that was a seriously good decision and that he was going to go okay this week?” Hussain concluded.

How Saim Ayub fared in the Test — A look at his numbers vs England

In the first innings of the Edgbaston Test, Ayub was trapped leg before the stumps. Robinson came up with a length ball slanting in from round the wicket, beating the southpaw’s inside edge on the push to rap him on the back leg. The ball tracking showed that it would have gone on to hit the stumps.

In the second innings, he opened the batting and again went for an expensive drive away from his body against the full delivery from Robinson and ended up giving a simple catch to Harry Brook in the slip region.

The Pakistan left-handed batter has now scored 364 runs in 16 innings of the longest format, with an average of under 25 and just three fifties in his name.