Shaheen Afridi

The youngest of seven siblings, Shaheen loved cricket from an early age, but for much of his childhood he played with a tennis ball. His eldest brother, Riaz, who played a single Test for Pakistan, steered him toward the conventional game and has remained both a role model and a mentor to him.

His rise through the ranks was rapid. Playing in the Pakistan Super League put him alongside some of the leading players in the sport, and that experience helped toughen him while he was still a teenager. His international career began in 2018, when he played in a home T20I series against West Indies and showed the range of his abilities. Later that year he was named in Pakistan's ODI squad for the Asia Cup, earning his first call-up in that format.

At the start of 2019 he made his Test debut, and later that year he went to the World Cup. Although he did not feature in every match, he was among the few bright spots in a disappointing campaign for Pakistan, bowling with good pace, mixing up his deliveries well in the closing overs and finishing with 16 wickets.

He was still considered raw and his domestic career was only just beginning, yet he showed enough to suggest he could become a major threat. A tendency toward injury means that how the Pakistan Cricket Board and team management handle his workload will be important, with the shorter formats seen as the place where he is most dangerous.