Naseem Shah Set To Miss World Cup 2023, Doubtful For AUS series & PSL

image-lmlwb9pwNaseem Shah after getting injured vs India (X.com)

Naseem Shah, Pakistan's young pace sensation is likely to be ruled out of World Cup 2023 due to a shoulder injury, he sustained during the Asia Cup game against India. He has undergone scans in Dubai and from the results of those scan, Naseem Shah is likely to be out of action for the rest of the year.

PCB is likely to take a second opinion but as a far as the initial scan reports are concerned, things look pretty bad and this will be a huge blow for Pakistan who recently failed to qualify for the final of the Asia Cup.

Both Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf were injured during their game against India, but Haris Rauf’s injury is not serious enough and he will be available for World Cup. 

However, Naseem Shah’s injury is worse than initially anticipated and the young pacer might miss the Test tour to Australia that is scheduled to start in December and might even miss PSL 2024.

Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, and Haris Rauf have formed a formidable pace trio over the last year or so, but with Naseem Shah injured now, they would have to look for other options. Zaman Khan recently replaced Naseem Shah for the game against Sri Lanka, and though Pakistan have quality pace bowling stocks, Naseem Shah's skills with both the new ball and at death will be missed.

Naseem Shah's ODI records and his replacement

Naseem Shah has been injury prone throughout his brief career and suffered a back injury when he was 17, which ruled him out for more than a year. He also had a shoulder injury in the past, but the current injury to his right shoulder is not a recurrence of his previous shoulder injury.

However, despite these setbacks from injuries, the 20-year-old has developed himself as a critical asset for Pakistan across formats. Naseem Shah has two five-wicket hauls in ODIs in just 14 matches and has played a couple of match-winning cameos with the bat as well.

Pakistan are yet to announce their World Cup squad, and Zaman Khan might get a nod for the all-important mega event in India. They will start their campaign on 6th of October against the Netherlands, while the big match against India will be played on 14th of October at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.