He had been out of First Class cricket since December last year.
Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah made an excellent return to red-ball cricket by picking up a five-wicket haul in the opening round of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, 2025. The young speedster had been out of First Class cricket since the Centurion Test against South Africa in December last year.
On his return, Naseem showed his class again, dismissing batters like Rizwan Ali, Faizan Riaz, and Hasan Nawaz to register terrific figures of 5/34 in 16 overs. This was his first five-wicket haul in four years, with the previous one coming for the Shaheens in October 2021.
Overall, this was his fifth five-wicket haul in 62 FC innings, and his performances will surely tempt selectors to reinclude him in the Test setup. Despite making a historic start to his Test career, Naseem fell off the radar quickly and has consistently been ignored for the longest format.
He was not in Pakistan’s squad for the West Indies series at home in January earlier this year and was overlooked again for the impending rubber against South Africa, starting on Sunday (October 12). Later, he was also omitted from the T20I plans and missed the Asia Cup 2025, with his latest outing in the format coming in November last year.
One of the biggest reasons for Naseem Shah’s exclusion from the Test format has been the pitches at home. Pakistan have opted for spin-friendly decks that turn notoriously from the first ball to fetch results and opted for veteran spinners in the domestic arena, such as Sajid Khan and Noman Ali.
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They adopted this tactic following their crushing defeat against England in Multan last year and have had encouraging results, as they came from behind to win the series 2-1. Since then, spinners have bowled around 95.36% of overs and taken 97.5% of total wickets for Pakistan in home Tests.
The same trend will continue in the upcoming South Africa series, and Naseem Shah won’t find it easy to break into the national side, at least for home games. The fact that Pakistan recalled Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali – both of whom missed the West Indies assignment – suggests that he is not in their plans for now.
Following South Africa, Pakistan will play three away series against Bangladesh, the West Indies, and England, and Naseem will target a return from those fixtures. If his performances are encouraging, he will return for home bilaterals next year, but he must build on an impressive start to the domestic season for that to happen.
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