Shaun Tait, one of the fastest bowlers in the history of cricket who served as the fast bowling coach for the Pakistan men’s team for a year, spoke about the qualities of Naseem Shah to Saj Sadiq for Wisden Cricket Monthly.

Tait was appointed as the fast bowling coach for Pakistan in February 2022 for a year. During his tenure, Naseem made his ODI and T20I debuts for Pakistan after having initially burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old tearaway quick in a Test match at the Gabba in 2019.

Since his debut, Naseem has established himself as one of the leaders of the Pakistan bowling attack in all formats. From 17 Test matches, he has 51 wickets at an average of 33.82 and 15 wickets from 19 T20Is at an economy rate of 7.30. However, it is the one day format where his numbers read the best currently: 23 wickets from just eight games at an average of 15.04.

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Speaking to Saj Sadiq for Wisden Cricket Monthly, Tait talked about how Naseem reminds him of himself and was all praise for his skills: “I see a lot of myself in Naseem Shah. He’s a bit of a free spirit and he likes to do things his own way. He’s fantastic.”

According to Tait, Naseem is one of the best he has seen at his age, which happens to be just 20 currently: “I loved working with him [as Pakistan bowling coach] and his talent is just phenomenal. He’s possibly the best fast bowler I’ve ever seen at his age.”

In his relatively short international career so far, Naseem has delivered several match-winning performances across formats. He played a pivotal role in helping Pakistan reach the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup. While he picked only three wickets from seven games, he went at just 6.23 runs per over and bowled a memorable spell in the final, threatening the English top order with almost every ball. Naseem is also the second youngest bowler to take a five-for in Test matches, and the youngest to take a Test hat-trick.

Given his all-round skills as a bowler, both technical and mental, Tait feels that Naseem is close to the ideal fast bowler: “His ability, his brain, his desire, his competitiveness… he’s almost the perfect package. He swings the new ball both ways, he can reverse swing the old ball, he takes pace off really well, and he has good yorkers. I realise there’s no such thing as the perfect bowler, but he’s nearly there.”

Naseem is currently in action in the Lanka Premier League where he has taken 10 wickets from seven games so far. Having made his T20I debut in the Asia Cup last year, Naseem has another Asia Cup campaign coming up in two weeks, this time in the ODI format, before setting his sights on the World Cup in India later this year.

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