'He is aging backwards' - Mohammad Kaif takes a dig at 16-year-old Naseem Shah

Naseem Shah has taken the cricket world by storm by making his Test debut against Australia in the ongoing Gabba Test match at Brisbane. The special thing was that Naseem is just 16 years old, as per Pakistani team records. The right-handed fast-bowler has shown bowling in higher 145 kph and going above 150kph on some occasions.

The Pakistani team under the new selector and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq has gone for fresh blood in the quick bowling department with Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Musa Khan been picked to accompany Mohammad Abbas and Imran Khan. Though the decision was criticized a lot, the ability and talent of all these bowlers were highly appreciated during practice sessions.

Naseem’s disputed age brought to limelight by Mohammad Kaif

Naseem Shah receiving his Test cap was an emotional one given that he had to make the hard decision to continue to stay with the national team in Australia while his mother passed away a few days ago. He showed a glimpse of his batting on day one, hitting Mitchell Starc for a boundary straight back down the ground.

Meanwhile, the ’16-year-old’ Naseem’s age has been an issue of dispute given that Mohammad Kaif, the former India batsman has pointed out that he was mentioned to be 17 years old in a tweet from PakPassion’s Saj Sadiq on Twitter in 2018.

Looks a terrific prospect. But is 16 now, aging backwards i think https://t.co/frlg06ZIFk

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) November 22, 2019

Even better, a fan dug out an old news article from 2016 in which Naseem has been aged 16 years old still. The article is from October 7, 2016 edition of Dawn newspaper in which legendary West Indies fast bowler Sir Andy Roberts talks about this young pacer and is quoted as saying, “I must say that I very much liked a young fast bowler by the name of Naseem. He is just a 16-year-old.”

Looks a terrific prospect. But is 16 now, aging backwards i think https://t.co/frlg06ZIFk

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) November 22, 2019

Pakistan has had a number of players who have made their Test debuts at a very young age, with the world record being held by Hasan Raza, who was 14 years and 227 days on his Test debut. Legendary Mushtaq Mohammad was 15 years of age when he made his debut in 1959 and the most famous of them, Shahid Afridi was also 16, on paper at least, when he took his Test cap in 1998 against Australia.