Naveen-ul-Haq Height, Age, Girlfriend, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Naveen-ul-Haq

• Naveen-ul-Haq is an Afghanistan cricketer who is known for getting into a fight with former Indian captain Virat Kohli in the IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants on 1 May 2023.

• He was born in Kabul and then moved to Pakistan for some time due to his family conditions. He studied there for five to six years and was not playing cricket at that time.

• He used to watch Indian cricket players playing on TV which led to his passion and love for cricket. On the weekends, his parents did not allow him to play cricket but he would play tape-ball cricket outside his home.

• When he used to play cricket with his brother, he used to bat and was a wicketkeeper but never used to bowl. He did not like bowling.

• He started playing cricket when he watched Afghanistan qualify for the first T20 World Cup, which was in the West Indies in 2012. He idolised Hamid Hassan while growing up. He inspired him to take up cricket and fast bowling.

• After returning to Afghanistan, he told his father that he wanted to play cricket and become a professional cricketer but he did not allow him to play. Naveen asked his brother to convince his father because his father used to listen to him. He somehow convinced him after which he joined the National Cricket Academy and his brother filled out the registration forms for him.

• After joining the academy, he found it difficult to play with a leather ball because of which he tried skipping the practice. He used to tell his coach that he did not have proper shoes or he was injured so, his coach moved him to practise with juniors.

• Sometime later, he got used to the practice and started bowling well so his coach asked him to bowl with his seniors.

• One day when he went to practice, there were trials going on for the under-16 national team. He was unaware of it and stood in the line of fast bowlers. He bowled three deliveries after which the selector told him not to bowl anymore. In an interview, he further talked about this and said,
  

  I was sad because I thought they didn’t like my bowling. That evening they announced the 50 players to come back and play the trial matches the next day. I was in that list. I think I maybe only got one wicket in the trial games, but my name was in the squad for the under-16s. I didn’t know what was happening next or what the squad was going to do.”

• At the age of 11, he flew to Penang to represent his country in the U-16 team. In the first tournament, he was not able to perform well and when he returned he decided not to bowl anymore. For one year, he used to just bat. After some time, he realized that if he had to become a professional player, he had to work on his weak points. Two years later, he went to the same tournament as a bowler and took 15 wickets with just 69 runs and he was named bowler of the tournament.

• When he was 15 years old, he helped Afghanistan win the ACC Under-19 2014 Premier League. In the tournament, he took 16 wickets and gave only 6.5 runs each.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq at the age of 15

• After this tournament, he told his family that he needed some time to prove himself. He did not have a coach, but he hired a personal trainer and worked out at the gym for four hours a day. He went on a strict diet. He worked so hard because he knew that if he didn’t make it as a cricketer, he would have to leave the country to study or work.

• On 25 September 2016, he made his debut in List A match against Bangladesh at Mirpur.

• In 2017, he won the ACC Under-19 Youth Asia Cup.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq receiving the ACC Under-19 Youth Asia Cup

• He made his first-class debut on 7 March 2018 for Kabul Eagles in the 2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament.

• In September 2018, he was named in the Nangarhar Leopards squad for the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League tournament.

• In November 2019, he played the 2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League for Sylhet Thunder.

• In July 2020, he was named in the Guyana Amazon Warriors squad for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.

• In October 2020, he was selected by the Kandy Tuskers for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League.

• In February 2021, he was chosen by the Leicestershire Foxes for the 2021 T20 Blast tournament in England. He was not selected for the 2022 season in England.

• In June 2022, in the T20 Vitality Blast, he played a match against the Worcestershire Rapids and took his first five wickets in Twenty20 cricket. The score was 5/11 in four overs.

• In July 2022, he was selected by Colombo Stars for the third edition of the Lanka Premier League.

• In December 2022, he was bought by the Lucknow Super Giants in the 2023 Indian Premier League auction.

• In 2016, he was part of Afghanistan’s squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

• In December 2016, he was the captain for Afghanistan in the 2016 Under-19 Asia Cup.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq with his team after winning the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup

• On 19 January 2017, he made his Twenty20 debut for Afghanistan against Namibia in the 2017 Desert T20 Challenge.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq with his team after winning the 2017 Desert T20 Challenge

• In December 2017, he was chosen as the captain of Afghanistan’s squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq during the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup

• In August 2019, he became part of Afghanistan’s Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for the 2019–20 Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series.

• In December 2020, he took to Twitter to express his feelings about the advice given by Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi. In a match between Kandy Tuskers and Galle Gladiators at the Mahinda Rajapaksha Stadium in Hambantota, Naveen had a fight with Mohammad Amir in the 18th over of the game. He was seen speaking rudely to Amir when he was batting. After the game got over, they shook hands and Shahid Afridi spoke to Naveen and gave him advice. Afridi took to Twitter to reveal the advice he gave to Naveen and said,
  

  My advise to the young player was simple, play the game and don’t indulge in abusive talk. I have friends in Afghanistan team and we have very cordial relations. Respect for teammates and opponents is the basic spirit of the game.”

  After his Tweet, Naveen took to Twitter to reply to Afridi and wrote,

  Always ready to take advice and give respect, Cricket is a gentleman’s game but if someone says you all are under our feet and will stay their then he is not only talking about me but also talking abt my ppl.”

• In September 2021, he was named in Afghanistan’s squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

• In 2021, he topped the wicket charts at the Vitality Blast for taking 26 wickets in 14 games for Leicestershire at an economy of 8.67.

• In December 2022, he was picked by Lucknow Super Giants for Rs. 50 lakh.

• In 2022, he received a Gold Fox cap, as recognition for “consistent outstanding service to the club” by Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
  

  Naveen-ul-Haq receiving the Gold Fox cap by Leicestershire County Cricket Club

• In January 2023, Naveen took to Twitter to announce that he would not participate in the Big Bash League (BBL) for Sydney Sixers after Cricket Australia announced that it would abandon the forthcoming series against the Asian team in March 2023. The decision was made by the CA after the Taliban made a decision to restrict women’s rights in the country. After this decision, he tweeted and wrote,
  

  Time to say won’t be participating in big bash after this until they stop these childish decisions that’s how they went about the one off test now ODI when a country is going through so much in place off being supportive you want to take the only reason of happiness from them #CA.”

• In an interview, he said that his bowling action changed because of back issues and injuries in 2015-16.