Hat-Trick Boy
Two years on, Naseem Shah's hat-trick highlights sport's ability to enthrall and disappoint in equal measure
“To be the next big thing in Pakistan is an exciting place to be. To be the next big thing in Pakistan is also the loneliest place to be”
Osman Samiuddin writing to Naseem Shah
The Test match didn’t have much to differentiate it from the previous two thousand, three hundred and eighty-three before it. A dusky golden hour glow had settled across Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, as the game meandered towards the close of play on day three. Pakistan were comfortably ahead and looking to bowl Bangladesh out for a second time.
With the light beginning to fade, Azhar Ali tossed the ball to sixteen-year-old prodigy Naseem Shah. Elite sportspeople of such a sickeningly young age often look older than their years. Already decades into their career, the incessant repetition of one specific action seems to present itself in bodily appearance. Grizzled eyes, sculpted bodies and knowing looks. All while still being a teenager. Shah, however, very much looked his age. The babiest of faces, topped with a high-school haircut. The unabashed grin across his face was only ever broken with a youthful look of intense concentration.
He opened this particular spell by bowling out a maiden. Threatening but uneventful.
That Shah appeared so young felt misleading. He’d been forced to grow up fast. Less than three months earlier - while on his debut tour to Australia - his mother passed away. Days later, and unable to fly home for the funeral, he became the youngest Test cricketer to play against Australia. An unplayable delivery angled into David Warner brought a first Test wicket.
Now ten balls into his spell, and coming round the wicket to Nazmul Hossain, Shah whipped a delivery well outside off stump. The ball pitched on a good length and suddenly veered violently inwards, honing in on the batter’s shins. Hossain stuck his pads in the way. Initially given not out, the ball was instead shown to be annihilating leg stump. Victim number one.
Mainstream arrival came just after Australia, and alongside joyous celebrations of a long-awaited homecoming Test for his country. The occasion forever to be marked, as Shah became the ninth youngest player to take a five-wicket haul in Test cricket. To even mention Pakistan’s love for fast bowling feels cliched. The nation’s thirst had already been quenched with the bombastic arrival of tall left-arm quick Shaheen Shah Afridi. A second firebrand quick following so soon meant lazy comparisons to Shoaib Akhtar and Waqar Younis were hard to resist.
Two minutes after the Hossain dismissal Shah returned to his mark. His understated scurry to the crease, elbows tucked tightly in, directly contrasting with the catapulting arm speed which delivered the ball. This time it was full. Again the ball dove inwards, and again the batter sticks his pad in the way. But, this time, there is no doubt. Shah doesn’t turn around. Instead, barely breaking stride, he mirrors his delivery, running off sharply in the opposite direction. Arms stretched out wide, as the wind flutters over the green and gold trim on his whites; preparing for take-off. Victim number two.
The Rawalpindi scoreboard informed everyone of something they already knew. Naseem Shah was “on a hat-trick”. An image to precede a fortunate event. Sometimes seismic events feel inevitable. It’s easy to say in hindsight, and so often we build ourselves up for something monumental to happen, only for things to fall flat. But on those rare occasions when they do happen, we can say we knew it was going to happen. Amor fati.
The final delivery of Shah’s second over bore no resemblance to any before it. This time he pounded over the wicket. This time the ball would barely deviate, and this time it pitched smack bang on Mahmadullah’s crease, around fifth stump. It wasn’t the perfect delivery. Perhaps the rivers of adrenaline had caused Shah to overshoot his target. However, there was one crucial similarity to his previous deliveries, it again brought a wicket.
The new batsmen, perhaps foolishly looking to put the kid in his place, looked to drive through the covers. The bat, beaten for pace, could only guide the ball to the beaming Haris Rauf at first slip. And again he was off, Shah’s arms flailing uncontrollably as he looked for open grass to run into, before being quickly swallowed up by his teammates. The perfect result, to an imperfect delivery.Victim number three.
A prince with the world at his feet.
Doing something so outer-worldly at such a young always comes with a catch. Your future is no longer yours to own. What you should do is decided for you. Inevitably it is unrealistic, inevitably it is unachievable and inevitably you will be questioned. And so to Osman Samiuddin’s open letter to Naseem Shah, written days after the hat-trick. Samiuddin knew what was coming. He knew the stratospheric expectations now sitting on Shah. To reread the words is to glimpse into the future, but now have the ability to view it as the past.
In the three years following the hat trick, the words written in the letter feel prescient. By the end of 2020, Shah was struggling with injury niggles. There were growing pains as the boy developed into a man, while still being expected to present as a fully formed superstar. There were fitness concerns, form concerns and national team squad exclusions. All culminating in the loss of his Pakistan central contract for 2021/22. This for a boy-man who only turned nineteen days ago. Nobody stays young for long. Victim number four.