It wasn't where he should have been, but he found himself here worryingly frequently. With another sigh, Naseem Shah placed himself back onto the treatment table for a massage. The TV was on; Pakistan were playing in the World Cup in India, and yet this cricket-mad kid who never missed a game could barely bring himself to watch. He would soon eat a bland meal, and push himself cautiously into his running, weight training and other exercises associated with the bleak, closed-off world of rehab that fans never really think about.

As a teenager, before he ever played international cricket, doctors had told him they'd found four fractures in his back, and his chances of continuing to play cricket at the highest level were almost zero. For Naseem, who has barely had any hobbies outside of cricket - he spends his spare time playing the tape-ball version of the game - it was the last thing he wanted to hear. He is thankful to Mudassar Nazar, who mentored him during this time, reassuring him he would heal.

This time, however, was different for an important reason. "I had to undergo surgery, and that is a big deal if you've never had surgery before," Naseem says. "There was a ball I bowled against India [in the Asia Cup Super Four] after which I fell down, and just before that I felt a tendon in my shoulder rip and sensed a gap in there. When we did a CT scan and the doctor approached me, I said, 'I know what you're about to tell me. You're going to tell me I'm out for six months.' Because I understood what was happening in my body and there was no way out other than surgery."

A long-term injury like the one Naseem suffered at the Asia Cup creates a dissonance between player and spectator. Fans may tick these days off on calendars, but players have to live through their crushing, repetitive tedium in a phantasmagoria of doctor's appointments, training exercises, painkillers, diet supplements, and worries about the future. "Being injured long-term," Naseem says, "and rehabbing in preparation to come back is the absolute toughest time any athlete can encounter."

The biggest fear, of course, is that a player may never come back properly at all. The glorious history of Pakistani fast bowling has its fair share of dark corners where young fast bowlers have been discarded, often as a result of inappropriate medical care, treated like shiny toys that were played with, broken and cast away, in the knowledge new ones would replace them soon enough and there was no need for repair.

"I always try to improve myself in addition to improving my cricket, in terms of how I can become a good human being. When God gives you blessings, it's very important to be the kind of person who is good to other people" © Sportsfile via Getty Images

Earlier this month an inquiry released a report on the shoddy medical treatment fast bowler Ihsanullah received; he faces a further year out and more surgery, and there is no time frame on a return. Rumman Raees, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Hasnain and Shaheen Afridi are among Naseem's contemporaries whose careers stalled to one extent or another following an injury, while Junaid Khan, Sohail Khan, and further back, Mohammad Zahid, all had their careers severely derailed by injuries.

But as Naseem says, even with the requisite care, there are never any guarantees. "There are a lot of risks to coming back and a lot of players give up in that time. You have to take care of everything. If a sportsman isn't eating the right things during injury, your body will change completely, and getting back to your level will take even more time. You have to do the same type of rehab training. Insaan kar kar ke bore ho jaata hai [The repetitiveness bores you].

"It depends on how positive you keep your mindset. You have to ensure you get everything perfect, and even if you do all that, it still takes time to get back to pre-injury levels."

We meet at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore, where the Pakistan team is staying during the home series against New Zealand. Most interviews here can usually be conducted without significant interruption in the coffee shop, but Naseem's high profile and ever-growing legion of fans make that impractical. We go past layer after layer of additional ID and security checks before taking the lift up to the team floor and an empty recreation room.

It's late afternoon and Naseem has just woken from a nap. He didn't play the previous T20I against New Zealand and he won't play the next one, partially because he's under the weather with a cold. Being roused in this state to talk about one of the bleaker phases in his life is probably the last thing he wants, but he lights up when we talk about his return.

Naseem with former Pakistan bowling coach Morne Morkel. "If someone from the other end is going for wickets, I need to stick to the basics where I need to stop the runs. If they're only seeing me out, they can take an unnecessary risk from the other end, play a false shot and get out" © AFP/Getty Images

"There's no pain now," he says. "But match fitness is totally different to just being injury-free. If you haven't played six months, the only way to gain that is to play more matches. This was why a good PSL [was important]. I returned at the PSL and I felt my rhythm come back, but it still took time for me to return to my best. It only happened because I was regularly playing matches."

Only three bowlers - just one of them a fast bowler - took more wickets this PSL, and all of them had worse economy rates than his. He also bowled two of the eight maiden overs of the tournament. The eye test was impressive too - his average pace grew steadily and he regularly hit the 140s. The shape with the ball up top, the hard lengths, the late-stage yorkers may not quite have been vintage Naseem, but they were redolent of a bowler not too far from that mark. He ended up in ESPNcricinfo's PSL team of the tournament.

It's a boost for Pakistan but doubly a relief for Naseem because he feels he has unfinished business at World Cups. He missed the last one because of the shoulder injury, and thinks this year's T20 World Cup comes at a good time in his recovery cycle. "There's still quite a bit of time to go, and I believe my body will be pretty much back to its best by then."

It is, however, the one in Australia in late 2022 that remains a gaping wound. Having only been brought into white-ball cricket weeks earlier, he took to the format with aplomb, effortlessly replacing the injured Afridi in the lead-up tournaments and in the first half of the World Cup proper. A fiery spell against India, where he snared KL Rahul in his first over, may well have been the highlight of a tournament in which Pakistan rode their luck to make it through to the semi-final. It lasted until the final.

Naseem half-chuckles, as if to protect himself against the sting of that bitter memory. "Sometimes you bowl very aggressively and go after wickets. There are two possibilities there - you might go for runs or you might take a wicket. But that day my philosophy was to do both, save runs and take wickets at the same time. That is very difficult, and high-risk too."

India vs Pakistan - just another game? "If anyone claims there's no extra pressure in an India-Pakistan match, go and ask the people of India and Pakistan!" Naseem says Ishara S Kodikara / © AFP/Getty Images

With Pakistan defending a below-par 137 and Shaheen only partially fit, Naseem sent down perhaps the greatest wicketless T20I spell, toying with the English batters at the MCG as he pounded away in search of wickets. In his second over he beat Jos Buttler's bat five times with fierce pace and probing movement both ways, and still conceded 11. On his 24 legal deliveries, he beat the bat or drew the edge 15 times; according to ESPNcricinfo's ball-tracking data, only once has a bowler managed more than that in T20I cricket since 2011. His figures, though? 4-0-30-0. Afridi sustained a fresh injury and couldn't bowl his quota, and the momentum Pakistan had been building slipped through their fingers as England strolled home.

"We were bowling in partnerships that day. I didn't take a wicket but people highlighted my bowling that day because I was giving it my all and nailing my lines and lengths without doing anything too flashy," Naseem says. "But people understand cricket enough to know what constitutes a good performance.

"My idea is, if someone from the other end is going for wickets, I need to stick to the basics where I need to stop the runs. This places pressure on the opposition. If they're only seeing me out, they can take an unnecessary risk from the other end, play a false shot and get out. This is how a bowling partnership works.

Naseem describes himself as "devastated" by the result of that final, but recalls with amusement an incident after he arrived back in his hometown, Lower Dir in northern Pakistan, a couple of days later.

"There's a guy who makes jalebis outside my house, and he started giving me advice about what I had done wrong in the final. I laughed and said to him, 'Uncle ji, I've been buying jalebis from you for two years, have I ever said to you that the shape of your jalebis is wrong or that you haven't made good ones? We're human and make mistakes, you make mistakes too. Toh hamein bhi maaf kar do na!." [Please forgive our mistakes too.]

Who's the spearhead? There's a sharp competitiveness between Naseem and Shaheen Afridi © AFP/Getty Images

That Naseem was a crucial T20I player so soon after making his debut illustrates a theme that has recurred throughout his career. He has been blessed with instant success wherever he has turned up. He was 15 when he took a five-wicket haul in his second match, 16 when he became the second youngest in history to take a Test five-wicket haul, and the youngest to take a Test hat-trick in the following game. It took him just three ODIs to register his first five-wicket haul, and he followed it up with another one in his next game.

But Naseem is so much more than his precocious achievements. People close to him marvel at his big-game mentality, one that rivals and perhaps even surpasses Afridi's. There exists a healthy competition between them that is reportedly more edgy than convivial. Insiders have said that both are driven not just by winning, but by ensuring they've outperformed the other. The rivalry is grounded in cricketing achievements rather than all-consuming toxicity, but it has only intensified as Naseem's star has soared. Perhaps the biggest tribute to him is, it's no longer obvious which of the two is Pakistan's premier fast bowler.

Naseem's ability to revel when things get fractious has been highlighted in situations where his natural ability with the ball cannot bail him out. With bat in hand he has arguably provided Pakistan supporters with some of their most emotionally charged memories. Afghanistan - and fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi - have been on the receiving end two times, when a flashpoint was immediately followed by Naseem balancing righteous anger with well-channelled adrenaline.

There is added edge when it comes to Afghanistan. After all, if you can't describe the history of the relationship between the Pakistan and Afghan cricket boards, and indeed that between the two countries, as edgy, then what's the point of the word?

Naseem demurs, even as he grins. "Not really. Any fast bowler who comes in with the bat and finishes a match like that against any team will be excited, whatever the opposition. That is what caused the wild celebrations. The whole team was looking at me, despite having no expectations, because I'm not a batter. If it hadn't been Afghanistan, that celebration would have happened anyway."

Bat drop: Naseem seals the win over Afghanistan in the 2022 Asia Cup with a six © AFP/Getty Images

It's different when we talk about India, though. Naseem has enjoyed and endured his fair share of ecstasy and heartbreak against them, and the latest instalment of world cricket's most anticipated fixture has a set date: June 9 in New York in the group stage of the T20 World Cup.

"I personally don't believe there's a big difference in quality in the players of both countries," Naseem says. "But if anyone claims there's no extra pressure in an India-Pakistan match, go and ask the people of India and Pakistan! There's huge pressure on the fans in both countries, and on the players too. You're not human if you don't feel pressure in such a big match.

"It's not as if there's pressure only on Pakistan and not on India, because we can see with our eyes how much they feel the pressure as well. How you perform on the day matters because both teams have some of the world's best players. The people in both countries are very involved, and I feel it's the only match where there isn't a single ball where you can relax. That's how much pressure there is on both teams, and how you handle it is crucial."

Naseem's enduring popularity doesn't just stem from his ability on a cricket ground. People close to him and the Pakistan cricket team have spoken of how the crowds who congregate outside team hotels and around team buses often have their eyes peeled specifically for him. That demographic increasingly includes young female fans, a fact not overlooked by some of the biggest brands in Pakistan.

No commercial deal could illustrate that better than Pepsi's current campaign spot, which has taken Pakistan by storm. Pepsi has been a long-time sponsor of the Pakistan cricket team, and is famously selective about the individual stars it partners with. Simply put, the face of a Pepsi campaign is perhaps unofficially the country's highest-profile sports star - or close enough, otherwise Pepsi wouldn't have picked them. Notable past collaborators from cricket include Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Shahid Afridi.

The acting skills Pepsi paid big bills for © Getty Images

The current ad features Naseem, who brings it to life in a way it is difficult to imagine another of his team-mates pulling off. In it he is required to play a bad actor before demonstrating he's actually a good one when inspired by the drink in question, putting his playful, boyish charm and the lilt of an Urdu accent in his second language to exquisite use.

Naseem's mix of film-star looks and tender vulnerability has proved an intoxicating concoction, and kindled a desire nationwide to wrap around him a cloak of protection. Pakistan watched him grow up when he should still have been a child - the kid leaving home when he should have been with his parents and siblings in his small town, the boy leading men on the cricket field with his performances, the son hearing news of his ailing mother passing away when he was on the other side of the world, when he should still have had decades by her side.

Weeks after his mother died, when he was thrust in front of cameras after taking his first five-wicket haul in Karachi, the only questions he was asked were about her. As he covered his tear-streaked face with his hands, the shutters went off, his pain televised and made a commodity.

That exploitation would reach its repulsive nadir with the leaking of a short, haunting video clip from his hospital bed. As he lay there, eyes closed and barely conscious following the surgery that ruled him out of last year's World Cup, Naseem appeared to be calling out to his late mother in distressed, tearful murmurs. There could hardly have been a more intimate moment, or one where he was more vulnerable, and yet it was captured on video and strewn across media.

Despite the apparent lack of limits on what aspects of his personal life can be treated as public property, Naseem isn't the kind who hides his emotions. The childlike mischief in that smile, the widening of those deeply expressive eyes as emotion pricks, the elation, the pain, are all on public display, and ravenously consumed. He has hidden nothing from a nation that hasn't quite shown it deserves that generosity. And he understands the risks he's taking by baring himself this way.

When in poor form, Naseem watches videos of himself at his best. "When I look at those performances, I focus my mind on replicating those performances and think, 'Nothing has changed'" Paul Kane / © Getty Images

"When you do well, fans in Pakistan show you an overwhelming amount of love. It's true that our fans get very excited, and very hurt when we lose, so you could say the balance is out of kilter! But we get as much love as we do criticism here.

"I always try to improve myself in addition to improving my cricket, in terms of how I can become a good human being. When God gives you blessings, it's very important to be the kind of person who helps other people out and is good to other people. People remember if you've done someone a good deed for a very long time. We all make mistakes, both in and outside the cricket field, but I always try to improve every day as a human being."

Naseem has received his fair share of mean-spirited, hurtful comments, as any young sportsperson in a role as public as his might. He does, though, appear to possess a filter that allows him to pick nuggets of value out of what might otherwise seem to be just tirades.

"There'll be something valuable in the criticism that you can use," he says. He believes good advice can come from just about anywhere (except perhaps the jalebi seller), and reveals how, on occasion, he has had success acting on advice from someone in the crowd shouting suggestions while he fielded in the deep.

Naseem could well have been a case study for a sportsman who was withered rather than nurtured by the spotlight, but the sense of perspective he has developed has kept him grounded. "You learn day by day," he says. "Especially when you travel, when you go to other countries and are exposed to other cultures that you were not aware of. The more you improve yourself as a human being, the more satisfaction you get."

Naseem averages under 10 with the bat in T20Is and Tests but 31 in ODIs courtesy two not-outs in wins against Pakistan's other arch-rivals, Afghanistan, in 2023 © AFP/Getty Images

While the maturity that belies his years has come partly from circumstance, his equanimity of outlook comes in part thanks to a large and tight-knit family, headed by a father who, though knowing nothing about cricket himself, allowed his son to fly the nest to follow his dreams. In 2020, when his sisters were told Naseem had taken a hat-trick, they responded by saying he had already passed his matric (matriculation exams). Two younger brothers have followed in his wake; this year at the PSL, all three - Naseem, Hunain and Ubaid - played for Islamabad United. Naseem handed them their debut caps, and Ubaid opened the bowling alongside his oldest brother in the first game, while Hunain ended up hitting the winning runs in the final.

"It was their first year," Naseem says. "It was a proud moment for me and my family because all three of us were playing together. It brings its own pressure, and when it's a blood relation, it feels even more special. I feel like Ubaid, especially, is better than me when I was his age, in terms of pace and mindset. Beyond that, it's about how hard he works, and if he's able to maintain this mindset."

But even with three sons in the game, their father still hasn't quite taken to the sport he allowed his boys to pursue on a leap of faith.

"Unko cricket ki koi samajh nahi" [He doesn't understand cricket at all], Naseem grins with the freedom of a boy speaking when his father isn't around. "He measures performances by how many wickets we've taken. He feels if we haven't taken three or four wickets, we haven't done well, and we have to explain to him that in T20 cricket, sometimes one or two wickets is also good enough."

Test cricket, though, is a step too far. "Just let me know after five days who won!"

Sweet sixteen: on his first tour, to Australia in 2019 © Getty Images

Naseem, unsurprisingly, holds the format in reverence, calling it "a fast bowler's foundation". "The more repetition there is in fast bowling, the more accurate your line and length will be. I am a big believer in Test and ODI cricket because that's where you find true, proper cricketers whose skills have been truly tested. It is hard to be successful but what is tough is maintaining that success over a period of time.

"Test and ODI cricket force you to bowl good areas and lines, with discipline and patience. All of those attributes are being tested. In T20 cricket you have no time. You might bowl the best ball and someone edges or scoops it behind the wicket. This doesn't happen as often in Test cricket. In T20 cricket you have no opportunity to plug away at lines and work a batter out. If you've played Test cricket, that gives you an advantage in terms of your lines and lengths in the shorter formats."

In that regard, Naseem has perhaps been fortunate with his career arc, having honed his skills in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and played 13 Tests over nearly three years before he ever sent down a white ball in an international. But surprisingly - and perhaps uniquely - it is the unloved middle child he offers an approving pat on the head.

"If I had to pick one, I'd go with one-day cricket. It is the format where I feel you have a nice mix of showing your skills within a singular contest. Sometimes you don't get that in T20 cricket. Because it's very short, sharp cricket. Batters play such a wide array of shots that it's nearly impossible to gauge what a good delivery is."

Still, for a man who says he plays tape-ball cricket in his spare time, the idea of giving up a format is anathema. Also, as Naseem points out, Pakistan don't play enough Test cricket for him to be a specialist in that format; it simply wouldn't be enough cricket for him.

Five-day fan: "In T20 you might bowl the best ball and someone edges or scoops it behind the wicket. This doesn't happen as often in Test cricket. In T20 cricket you have no opportunity to plug away at lines and work a batter out" © Visionhaus/Getty Images

"Because I have a base in Test cricket, it makes me feel I can play all-format cricket. But T20 cricket is changing the world. You have to learn the skills that T20 cricket teaches you as well. It's just that a foundation in red-ball cricket can help you in T20. In Test cricket you have different types of wickets and different types of conditions as a fast bowler. Sometimes you bowl three or four spells in a day and each comes under different conditions and wickets.

"If you've done all that for five days and then come to ODI or T20 cricket, it feels like it comes easily to you. In one day you sometimes bowl 25 overs in a Test, and then when you come down to bowling ten or four overs, fitness-wise that comes quite easily to you."

The sheer volume of T20 cricket means this debate is far from settled, but Naseem points to a top-flight player who came through debilitating long-term injuries early in his career to become an elite all-format bowler. "When you get injured and you learn about your body, make your recovery and come back to your pre-injury level, you're even better when you come back because you know which parts of your body are vulnerable and you can work on them.

"Pat Cummins, for example, had several injuries in several parts of his body, so he would have understood how to fortify and strengthen those weaknesses. So you manage your workload, training and diet accordingly, and that reduces your chances of injury."

When poor form or loss of confidence nag away at him, Naseem goes back to watch reruns of his greatest bowling spells, understanding such fortification is important for his mindset and mental health. "I can get that kind of form back. I'm the same cricketer," he says.

And then he asks himself what stops him from achieving that level. In those moments he watches Naseem like we all watch Naseem, as this generational talent with that liquid whip of a bowling action and the elegant leap of a gazelle. Who somehow has the strength to bowl that fast - flesh and muscle but at the same time lithe and light.

On making comebacks from injury: "You're even better when you come back because you know which parts of your body are vulnerable and you can work on them" Seb Daly / © Sportsfile/Getty Images

Except, unlike us, at the end of it all, he has the luxury of telling himself, "I was the one who did this."

"When I look at those performances, I push the negative thoughts away. I focus my mind on replicating those performances and think, 'Nothing has changed. The only thing that is different is my mindset. My mind started allowing negative thoughts in, but my action, the pitch, my bowling, is all the same. I am the same.'"

He dismisses a question about individual career goals, saying he does not have a wickets tally to finish on in mind, because performances, he believes, are only remembered when your team wins. "What would give me satisfaction would be to be remembered fondly."

He gets up at the end of the interview, mumbling about going back for another nap. Being everything to all people: the heartthrob, the delicate young man, the prodigious talent, the leader of a bowling attack, can take its toll. With any luck, he still has years of it all ahead of him.

And if he does drift off again, he will do so safe in the knowledge that he is making two people very proud - the mum who never saw him play cricket, and the dad who doesn't quite understand it when he does.

No wonder sleep comes so easy to him at four in the afternoon.

Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo's Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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