98 T20Is. A Career Built Over 10 Years. One Positive Test That Could End It All — The Mohammad Nawaz Story

 

Cricket has a way of building careers slowly. Brick by brick, match by match, season by season. It takes years of domestic cricket, years of waiting for your chance, years of proving yourself every single time you step onto the field. And then, in a moment — one result from one test — all of it can be placed in jeopardy.

That is the situation Mohammad Nawaz finds himself in today. Thirty-two years old. Ninety-eight T20 internationals for Pakistan. A left-arm spinner who has been part of some of Pakistan cricket's most important moments over the last decade. And now, a name attached to a story that nobody in Pakistan cricket wanted to read.

On April 22, 2026, ESPNCricinfo broke the news that Nawaz had tested positive for recreational drug use — with the sample having been collected during the T20 World Cup 2026 in Sri Lanka earlier this year. The ICC informed the PCB. The PCB began its due process. And a career that had survived lean patches, form slumps, and the brutal unpredictability of T20 cricket now faces something it has never faced before.