Senior team management requested to pull Naseem Shah out of U-19 World Cup, clarifies PCB

Pakistan’s teen talent Naseem Shah became the talk of the town after a fiery spell of fast bowling against Australia A before becoming the youngest player to make his Test debut in Australia at the tender age of 16. Ever since the Brisbane Test, Shah’s age has been subjected to a lot of speculation.

There were rumours of an age fraud which ruled the prodigy out of the U-19 World Cup but a PCB official, according to a Sportstar report, confirmed that Shah has been pulled out of the tournament after team managements request playing down the rumour.

“The factual position is that since the ICC Youth World Cup is to be held from this month in South Africa we had all the documents submitted by all the players, and verified again, which is a routine procedure and this included Naseem Shah,” a PCB spokesman told Sportstar.

He said after the procedure, the documents issued by the government to Shah confirmed he was below 19 years of age and eligible to play in the Youth World Cup.

“But the senior team management of Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis felt that since he had already played Test matches it would be best if he is released from the U-19 squad and practices with the senior team for upcoming assignments.”

During the series Down Under, a lot of questions were raised on Shah’s age before PCB categorically denied all of them. The PCB official insisted that Naseem was not released from the U-19 team because of age-related issues.

“He is under 19 as per official documents which are accepted by the ICC and he was only released on the instructions of the senior team head coach and chief selector, Misbah,” he concluded.

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