Srinagar: Pakistan’s rising pacer Naseem Shah has opened about one his tragic moments of life that happened just before his debut for Pakistan.
Naseem Shah had the most difficult start to his international career in 2019 when merely a day before his Pakistan debut, he had to endure the loss of his mother.
At 16, Naseem braved the tragedy to appear for Pakistan against Australia in Brisbane, where he picked the wicket of David Warner.
“I was too attached with my mom. When I was 12, I left home because of cricket. I shifted to Lahore. When my debut came, she called me a day before and I told her, ‘tomorrow is my debut’. She didn’t use to watch TV, she didn’t understand cricket. But I told her, ‘you must watch the game tomorrow because I’m playing, I’ll be live on TV’,” Naseem recalled during an interview with Nasser Hussain for Sky Sports Cricket.”She was so happy, she said she would come to Lahore to watch the game. When I woke up, the management came to me and said, ‘your mom has passed away”.
Naseem said that to debut for Pakistan in such situation was toughest day of his life.
“For the next six-to-eight months, I struggled so much. No one thinks about what’s going inside you. I used to have a lot of medicines, I saw my mom everywhere. I used to think about her a lot. Whenever you play for Pakistan, everyone expects performances from you. I had a lot of injuries during that time as well, so it was a tough time. I learned from it, though. I’m stronger now. My (Pakistan) debut was the toughest day of my life. I can manage when I’m not performing well now, because I know how tough it was,” Naseem said further.
Naseem played in 14 Tests and 16 T20Is for the side so far, and was also one of Pakistan’s main fast bowlers in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup.
