Naseem Shah recalls hilarious conversation with jalebi vendor

Pakistan’s bowling sensation, Naseem Shah, recently recalled how a jalebi (funnel cake) vendor gave him a piece of advice following Pakistan’s T20 World Cup final loss to England in 2022.

Naseem mentioned that when he returned home after the mega event, a jalebi vendor near his house pointed out what Naseem did wrong in the final.

In his recent interview, the 21-year-old replied that everyone makes mistakes and has never criticized the shop owner’s jalebis.

“There’s a guy who makes jalebis outside my house, and he started giving me advice about what I had done wrong in the final. I laughed and said to him, uncle ji, I’ve been buying jalebis from you for two years, have I ever said to you that the shape of your jalebis is wrong or that you haven’t made good ones? We’re human and make mistakes,
you make mistakes too. Toh hamein bhi maaf kar do na [So, please forgive us too].”

Naseem also shared his journey of recovering from a shoulder injury during the Asia Cup last year “It still took time for me to return to my best. There’s no pain now. But match fitness is totally different to just being injury-free. If you haven’t played six months, the only way to gain that is to play more matches.”

Naseem Shah struggled to get going in Pakistan’s recently concluded four-match T201 series against England ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Earlier, a combined bowling and batting effort powered England to outclass Pakistan by seven wickets in the fourth T20I to win the four-match series 2-0.

Set to chase 158, England comfortably chased down the total for the loss of just three wickets and 27 balls to spare.

It is worth mentioning here that the four-match T20I series between Pakistan and England was the final opportunity for both sides to gear up for the T20 World Cup 2024 as the previous edition’s finalists will skip the warm-up matches for this year’s mega event.