Pakistan is known for producing some of the finest pacers in the world. From Shoaib Akhtar to Waqar Younis, Pakistan have provided the cricket fraternity with the deadliest pace bowlers. Even today, the Babar Azam-led side consists of the likes Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, who have been handling Pakistan's pace unit exceptionally well. In five ODIs, Naseem has scalped a total of 18 wickets with two five-wicket hauls. On the other hand, Shaheen has played 32 ODIs and scalped a whopping total of 62 wickets. Former England skipper Nasser Hussain called Pakistan's pacer duo "gold dust" and advised the team to rest and rotate both the players.
“Pakistan needs to rest and rotate its fast bowlers. Both Naseem and Shaheen are like gold dust, and you need to be very careful with both of them playing all three formats,” Cricket Pakistan quoted Hussain as saying.
Shaheen made his Test debut in 2018 against New Zealand. Since then, he has played 25 matches in the longest format and scalped 99 wickets with four five-wicket hauls. Apart from this, he has played 47 T20Is and took 58 wickets.
The 22-year-old pacer has been out of action since the final of T20 World Cup 2022, after he picked up a knee injury during the summit clash. later, he underwent an appendectomy.
Recently, the pacer uploaded a video on social media in which he could be seen warming up in nets with an intense bowling session. This indicated that his return to competitive cricket is really close.
On the other hand, Naseem made his international debut in 2019 with the Test match against Australia. Later in 2022, he made his debut in the shortest format with the Asia Cup. Since then, he has played 16 matches and scalped 14 wickets.
He was last seen in the ODI series against New Zealand, where Pakistan lost to the Kiwis 1-2 in the three-match series.