Who is Naseem Shah? Pakistan fast bowler and viral video hit at the age of 16

Naseem Shah is 16 years old, bowls like the wind and made his Test debut on Thursday at the Gabba. He was given his Pakistan green Test cap in an emotional ceremony on the morning of the match by Waqar Younis, the mesmerisingly quick master of reverse swing who is enjoying another stint as his country’s bowling coach and mentor to the young attack the former captain and newly-installed head coach and chief selector, Misbah-ul-Haq, has charged with matching Australia for pace and hostility.

There were tears when Waqar hugged him and more when he put the cap on his head: pride, of course, but also grief for his mother who died only 10 days ago. Shah was due to play in the warm-up match against Australia A in Perth when he was told the news by Misbah. Once he realised he would never make it home to Lower Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan’s north-west, a district closer to Kabul than Lahore, in time for the funeral which took place, according to Islamic custom, within 24 hours, he insisted on playing.

Although he sat out Australia A’s first innings,Shah came on at first change in the second, reeling off eight overs with such slick fluency that Cricket Australia’s clip of his highlights - the wicket of Marcus Harris, clouting Usman Khawaja on the helmet and having him dropped at slip - went viral. Within a week it had been viewed more than 4,700,000 times.

It earned him global fame and, on Thursday at the age of 16 years and 279 days, a debut that made him the youngest player in Test cricket on Australian soil. He suffered a nerve-racking introduction to the fray, coming in at No 10 to face Mitchell Starc’s hat-trick ball, an inswinging yorker speared at his toes but he did not panic and managed to ram his bat down and chisel the ball out of the blockhole. He made seven but returned to his strongest suit on Friday morning with ball in hand and although he failed to take a wicket, as a David Warner-inspired Australia dominated, it confirmed the impression he has made as a crackerjack if raw prodigy.

This Test is only Shah’s eighth first-class match. He began playing tape-ball as a child in Lower Dir but coming from a family to whom cricket meant little, he assumed that his promise would be unfulfilled. Yet his uncle, convinced by the praise the young bowler was attracting, took him on the eight-hour road trip to Lahore and enrolled him at the Abdul Qadir Academy where he prospered so quickly that he was selected for Lahore Under-16s at 13 and Pakistan Under-16s at 14.

By the age of 15 he was playing for the Under-19s in the Asia Cup, then made his first-class debut. Fourteen months later he became the ninth-youngest Test player in history. There has been the usual scepticism about the accuracy of his stated date of birth but no evidence to suggest it has been misrepresented.

Pakistan have not won a Test in Australia for 24 years and have lost their last 12 in succession. Little wonder that Misbah has shaken selection up and entrusted two of Pakistan’s three fast-bowling places at the Gabba to coltish bowlers. What is surprising is that Shaheen Shah Afridi at 19 is not the youngest of them but the senior by three years. Shah had taken 27 wickets in the first-class game for Central Punjab before his call-up, swinging the ball both ways and mixing skiddy bouncers with yorkers.

“When I saw him first,” said Pakistan’s captain Azhar Ali this week, “ I was so surprised at the control he had and the pace he had and, on top of it all, the temperament and the composure when he bowls is so exciting to see.” He bowls with slippery consistency and control, maintaining speeds above 88mph and, not yet fully grown, surprises batsman with the bounce he extracts from a little under 6ft.

Searing pace always beguiles but what makes Shah so special is his action. He says he modelled himself of the former New Zealand quick Shane Bond but the man he most resembles, particularly when bowling over the wicket  - and yes, the author is aware that this could be construed as sacrilege - is Dennis Lillee. There is such a smoothness to his approach,the bowling arm swinging twice with pendulum precision, the refined economy of his wind-up and the way he gets off the pitch in his followthrough. It is the more chest-on Lillee, the one after the back surgery, but elegant nonetheless. Not without coincidence, he has had his own back problems to overcome and took nine months of strength and conditioning work as well as making tweaks to the placement of his feet in his delivery stride.

Worries that his debut has come too soon and the weight of expectation following his instant rise to global fame last week could be crushing are not shared by his team-mates. As the opening batsman Shan Masood said, the young man has put up with much more than that over the past fortnight.

"Losing a parent is irreplaceable, he said. “The guts and courage he showed to step out on the field again, do it for his family and his mother and his team and his country, that was commendable. A 16-year-old being that mature ... if you only talk about how well he is doing in cricket, that's already a lot of maturity.”

Whatever happens by the end of the tour, the manner in which Pakistan’s touring party have embraced him diminishes the burden of fulfilling the hopes of cricket lovers back home. Their joy when he received his cap was palpable and the experience of bowling at Brisbane and with the pink ball in the day-night Test at Adelaide will act as a greenhouse to expedite his education.

As those millions of pairs of eyes feasted on Shah’s highlights reel last week, the Indian Express tracked down Andy Roberts who had coached the teenager at a clinic for Pakistan’s Cricket Academy two years ago. The great West Indies fast bowler with the meanest bouncer around was delighted to learn of his progress. “From what I see, he has everything, it’s up to him now.” Roberts said. ‘The kid’ could have no finer testimonial.