5 min readChennaiFeb 8, 2026 05:07 PM IST A teenager with scattered stubble is flexing his biceps in every frame. He wears a gruff expression. The eyes are cold, but the gaze is piercing. This was Gulbadin Naib in Tim Albone’s documentary ‘Out of the Ashes’, on the rise of Afghanistan cricket. Naib was then an aspiring cricketer, raised in the crammed refugee camps in Peshawar, where he and his family fought for basic needs, but where he also picked up the sport. By then, he had returned to his hometown Puli Alam, in the Logar province, where his father set up a fruit stall. Sixteen years later, through a career of grit and granite, the bicep-flex image defines him. It is so popular that when he completed his half-century against New Zealand, pulling his side out of a defensive hole, some in the stands rolled up their sleeves and swirled their biceps. In this instance, Naib did not. He raised both his arms towards the dressing room and waved at the applauding crowd. He …