Naveen-ul-Haq IPL Profile

Born on 23rd September 1999 in Kabul, Afghanistan native, Naveen-ul-Haq is an Afghan cricketer who plays for Lucknow Super Giants in Indian Premier League. Over the last few years, Afgan cricketers have turned into top professionals in the T20 format, and Naveen too can be classified as a T20 specialist. 

His rise to prominence has been nothing but inspiring. He spent his initial days in the war zone of Afghanistan before he shifted to Pakistan to launch his cricket career as a refugee. Naveen is a right-arm pacer with uncanny bowling action and admires the likes of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, and Zaheer Khan as his models. 

He started playing Cricket professionally when he was just 11 years old when he represented Afghanistan at the U-16 level. Four years later, Afghanistan won the ACC Under-19 Premier League title and Naveen played a big part in that win. He was then chosen to play for his country in the 2016 U-19 Asia Cup as well as the U19 Cricket World Cup. 

After impressing in both that tournament he was directly drafted into the national team even before playing a single domestic game in 2016. He made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2016 and a year later in T20I against the same opponent. His T20I debut went pretty impressive where he took two wickets at an economy of 5. 

As he made gradual progress on the international stage, Naveen also went on playing for various franchises across the globe and made a name for himself in the shorter format of the game. The Afgan cricketer impressed for Leicestershire in the T20 Blast and the Abu Dhabi T10 League, further enhancing his reputation as a shorter-format bowler. His dazzling performance ultimately brought him to the Indian Premier League after being picked up by the Lucknow franchise for the 2023 season at his base price. He will, however, be remembered for his on-field altercation with India star Virat Kohli during a match between LSG and RCB.