Naseem Shah

Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited may not be an esteemed name in Pakistan cricket, but it was for this deparment 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. 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 second match. Records continued to tumble, with Naseem becoming the youngest to take a Test match hat-trick in his third Test against Bangladesh.

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. It wasn't until the third Test against Australia in Lahore in March 2022 that Naseem returned to the international fold. Mercifully, the pace was still extreme and there were no signs of the injuries he had nursed during his time away.

If anything, Naseem has gone on to become a potent white-ball player. Until as recently as August 2022, he had never played a white-ball international, but in Shaheen Afridi's absence, has blossomed in that leading role. His first T20I career over, where he dismissed KL Rahul and toyed with Virat Kohli, was one Shaheen himself would have been proud of, and further performances in the Asia Cup only bolstered his reputation. It's easy to sometimes forget that the man currently spearheading Pakistan's vaunted fast bowling line-up is just 19, and with the T20 WOrld Cup looming, he has the chance to go back to where his international career began and show the world how far he has come. And, of course, how much farther he can still go.

Danyal Rasool