Pakistani 18-year-old all-rounder Ayesha Naseem has taken the cricketing world by surprise with her unexpected retirement announcement. She bid farewell to her budding career to lead a more religious life following the teachings of Islam. She has also informed the Pakistan Cricket Board of her decision on Thursday.
Ayesha reportedly told PCB, “I am leaving cricket and want to live my life according to Islam”.
The right-handed batter made her international debut for Pakistan in March 2020 against Thailand. She was selected for Pakistan’s squad in the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. She continued to perform over the years solidifying her position as a key player in the team.
She participated in four One Day and four T20 Internationals for Pakistan. She has scored a total of 369 runs in her T20 international career with a strike rate of 128.12. She has struck two sixes in one-day internationals and 18 in the T20 ones. She played her last T20 International match on 15 February of this year. Her first ODI match was in July 2021, while her last was in January 2023.
Her international career witnessed her score 402 runs in total. She gained popularity in January 2023 owing to her brief appearance in the inaugural T20I game against Australia. She scored 24 runs in 20 balls, with the help of three sixes and a four.
Notably, she is not the only Muslim celebrity to make such a momentous decision. Pakistani actresses like Anum Fayyaz and Zarnish Khan along with their Indian counterparts Sana Khan and Zaira Wasim, among others, left their careers for the sake of religion and to spend their lives per the Islamic laws.