A feisty fast bowler with a wide range of slower-ball variations, Naveen-ul-Haq first rose to prominence as a death-overs specialist, but soon developed his new-ball skills to become a useful weapon across phases. Like many of his compatriots, he is an in-demand commodity in franchise leagues across the world.
Born in Kabul, Naveen fled with his family to Pakistan in his early years, and began playing tape-ball cricket there. When they returned to Afghanistan, he began playing with a leather ball for the first time. He was so impressive for Afghanistan's Under-16 and Under-19 teams that his first professional match at the senior level was his ODI debut against Bangladesh, just two days after he turned 17.
Naveen made seven sporadic ODI appearances from his debut to January 2021, and a year later he took a break from the format to focus on the 2022 T20 World Cup. In the meantime, he became an integral part of Afghanistan's T20I side, either side of captaining Afghanistan to a fourth-place finish at the 2018 Under-19 World Cup.
Stints at the BPL, CPL, LPL and the T20 Blast followed as he began to build his reputation. In 2023, Naveen announced he would retire from ODIs after the World Cup that year. He took eight wickets as Afghanistan put in an impressive display in the competition, finishing sixth on the table.
By then, he had made his IPL debut as well, taking 11 wickets in his first season for Lucknow Super Giants, and was also in the news for an on-field altercation with Virat Kohli.
Towards the end of 2024, Naveen along with team-mates Fazalhaq Farooqi and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman got in trouble with the Afghanistan Cricket Board after they asked to be released from their central contracts so they could sign up for more franchise leagues. The board responded by revoking the players' NOCs and denying them further NOCs for the next two years. The situation was resolved with the board agreeing to grant them a limited number of NOCs and slapping them with financial penalties.
Naveen returned 14 wickets in IPL 2024, but it was in the T20 World Cup that year that he really shone. Naveen and Farooqi combined to take the spotlight away from Afghanistan's spinners as they made the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time. Naveen finished the tournament with 13 wickets, and his three-wicket burst was one of the highlights of Afghanistan's first-ever victory over Australia in any format.