Pakistan’s star youngster Naseem Shah is widely regarded as one of the most talented pacers in modern-day cricket. In short time, Naseem, who had made his Test debut for Pakistan in 2019, has cemented his place as one of the key players for the side across formats; he has 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.

The 19-year-old pacer, however, 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 in the side’s only bowling innings.

Three years later, Naseem opened up on the incident that shook his life.

“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’.

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, ‘you mom has passed away’,” Naseem recalled during an interview with Nasser Hussain for Sky Sports Cricket.

“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.