Naseem Shah

Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited may not be an esteemed name in Pakistan cricket, but it was for this department that Naseem Shah made his first-class debut at 15. With a natural, whippy action that generated easy pace, he immediately stood out even in that most competitive of fields - Pakistani fast bowling. A year later, he was making his Pakistan debut in Brisbane, though not before adversity touched him; he would lose his mother just before he received his first Pakistan cap.

His talent was so blindingly obvious it was only a matter of when things clicked for him. In 2019, he became the youngest fast bowler in Test history to take a five-wicket haul, doing so in Karachi against Sri Lanka in just his third match. Records continued to tumble - in the very next Test, against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi, Naseem became the youngest to take a hat-trick in the format.

Bodies that young don't often have to handle the force required to generate that sort of speed, and what followed was a spate of injuries that initially impacted his performance before sidelining him for more than a year from the start of 2021. He made his international return on Australia's tour of Pakistan in March 2022, and took a four-for in the third Test, with his pace seemingly intact and no signs of the injuries he had nursed during his time away.

Nearly as remarkable was the ease with which he took to white ball cricket when introduced at the Asia Cup in 2022. In his first over in T20Is, against India, he dismissed KL Rahul and came out the better in a battle with Virat Kohli, and he was instrumental in Pakistan's run to the final. A few months later Pakistan made it to the T20 World Cup final too, where Naseem bowled a tight but ultimately fruitless spell. ODI cricket appeared to come easy to him too, with 32 wickets in his first 13 matches as he prospered both with the new ball and at the death.

By now, however, he was playing too much cricket with a body that had already taken plenty of punishment. A debilitating shoulder injury ruled him out of the 2023 ODI World Cup and much of the following year. This time around, the comeback wasn't quite as smooth with a notable drop in his pace. There were occasional sparkling performances - including a stunning spell against India at the T20 World Cup in 2024 in which he accounted for Kohli in his first over - but he was dogged by inaccuracy and inconsistency. It saw him lose his place in the side in every format on different occasions, though flashes of the bowler he was at his best never appear far away.