Asia Cup 2022: Naseem Shah continues Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir's first-over-wicket legacy

Youngster Naseem Shah continued the first-over-wicket legacy set by Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Shah Afridi during the high-pressure T20 Asia Cup 2022 final against Sri Lanka.

The star pace sent Kushal Mendis back to the pavilion in the first over of the match as Babar Azam opted to field first after winning the toss.

Naseem has performed well in Shaheen's absence from the 2022 Asia Cup as he has seven wickets to his name in five matches.

He rose to fame when he continued the legacy of Amir and Afridi who were masters of taking first-over breakthroughs for Pakistan.

The right-arm pacer took a wicket off the first over in the opening match against India to set the tone for Pakistan. He clean bowled KL Rahul to put India under pressure.

The first-over-wicket trend was set by Amir against India in T20 Asia Cup 2016. Amir removed Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in the first over while India was chasing paltry 84 runs.

Later on, Amir continued taking first-over-wicket in Champions Trophy 2017 final in which Pakistan beat India to lift the trophy.

Last year in T20 World Cup 2021, Shaheen rattled India's batting line by taking first-over-wicket. The left-arm pacer thereafter continued taking a wicket in his first over.

In his absence from T20 Asia Cup 2022 due to injury, Naseem is filling up his space by taking wickets in the first over. 

He also became Pakistan’s newest six-hitting hero when he walked in to bat at number 10 with Pakistan needing 20 off 10 balls with just two wickets in hand in their chase of 130 against Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Pakistan lost Asif in the 19th over but Naseem kept his cool, with 12 needed off the last over, to smash Farooqi’s attempted yorkers for consecutive straight sixes over long-off.

Twitterati and fans lavished praises on the new sensation who has three golden ducks — Afghanistan's Mohammad Nabi, India's KL Rahul, and Sri Lanka's Mendis —  in the two-week long tournament.