'My mother passed away before I made my debut..', Pakistan's Naseem Shah shares heart wrenching story

Pakistan's pace bowling sensation Naseem Shah is deemed as the future superstar. Having made his Test debut in 2019 as a 16-year-old, Naseem tasted little success so far. Be it with the ball or bat, Naseemhas shown what he is made of. Against India in the first match of the Asia Cup this year, he impressed everyone with his pace, lineand length. Even against Afghanistan, later in the tournament,he smoked two sixes in the final over to help his team win a crunch tie. In the T20 World Cup in Australia that followed,Naseem continued making headlines. In Tests, in particular, Shah even has a hat trick to his name that came against Bangladesh in 20220.

Meanwhile, he had his share of struggles growing up. Before hemade his Test debut, Shah recalls talking to his mother on phone and telling her to follow the match live. Little did he know what was going to happen next. When he woke up the next day, the management came to him and informedhim that his mother has passed away.

Speaking to England's Naseer Hussain on Sky Sports, Naseem spoke in detail about this heart-wrenching story of his mother passing away that too on the day of his Test debut.

"I was too attached to my mom. When I was 12, I left home because of cricket. I shifted to Lahore. When my debut came, she called me a day before and I told her, 'tomorrow is my debut'. She didn't use to watch TV; she didn't understand cricket. But I told her, 'You must watch the game tomorrow because I'm playing, I'll be live on TV'.
"She was so happy, she said she would come to Lahore to watch the game. When I woke up, the management came to me and said, 'your mom has passed away'," Naseem said.

Elaborating further, Naseemsaid not only was he affected mentally by this incident, but he also struggled outside of it too. Revealing that he was under medication after his mother's demise, Shah said,

"For the next six to eight months, I struggled so much. No one thinks about what's going on inside you. I used to have a lot of medicines, I saw my mom everywhere. I used to think about her a lot. Whenever you play for Pakistan, everyone expects performances from you. I had a lot of injuries during that time as well, so it was a tough time. I learned from it, though. I'm stronger now. My (Pakistan) debut was the toughest day of my life. I can manage when I'm not performing well now, because I know how tough it was."

Naseem is currently nursing a shoulder injury and is out of the third Test against England in Karachi, starting on Saturday, December 17th.