Naveen ulHaq

Truly a child prodigy, Naveen-ul-Haq has seen it all from war-zone in Afghanistan to building a cricket career as a refugee in Pakistan. Naveen is a right-arm pacer with an uncanny bowling action. Just like other Afghanistani colleagues, Naveen has been classified as a T20 specialist.

Growing up Naveen used to watch India play and cherished the bowling trio of Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth. He started playing the sport professionally as an 11-year-old when he represented Afghanistan at the U-16 level. 

Four years later, he played a key role in the trophy win during the ACC U-19 Premier League 2014. Later in 2016, he was selected for the U-19 World Cup and also led his country during the U-19 Asia Cup of 2016. 

A few months later, he donned the Afghanistan colors to make his ODI debut against Bangladesh. Naveen was a little expensive in his first outing but took the wicket of Mashrafe Mortaza.

In 2018, Naveen led his nation to the semifinal of the Junior World Cup, where he took 8 wickets at a healthy strike rate and a splendid economy. Next year, he made his maiden appearance in the T20 format, when Afghanistan played against Bangladesh. The pacer had a dream T20 debut where he took two wickets at an economy of 5. As he took tiny steps internationally, Naveen went to impress various franchises across the globe.

From the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) in West Indies, the pacer went to Sri Lanka to play in the Lanka Premier League where he engaged in a tussle with Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Amir. The same year, he took part in the T10 Abu Dhabi league. In 2021, the promising pacer signed a contract with Leicestershire as a T20 Blast overseas player.  

The emergence of Naveen-ul-Haq surely gives an assurance to Afghanistan Cricket that their pace-battery is also filling up to complement their yielding spin-attack.

(As of March 2021)