Remember Mohammad Zahid?

The sight of the gangling pacer from Gaggu Mandi, running in to deliver his thunderbolts seems like it belongs to another era. Surprisingly, though, the right-arm fast bowler only turned 39 this month.

He was Pakistan's great pace hope as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis begun dropping a few yards and had emerged onto the scene just before the arrival of Shoaib Akhtar.

Zahid made a stunning Test debut against New Zealand in 1996, picking up 11 wickets in the second game of the two-match series.

Leading the series, New Zealand started their second innings in the match with a deficit of 181 runs and were comfortably placed at 82 for no loss before the 20-year-old Zahid struck.

In a sizzling display of pace bowling, Zahid picked up seven wickets to bowl New Zealand out for 168 runs and take Pakistan to a series-levelling innings and 13-run victory.

Pakistan headed to Australia next for the Carlton and United tri-series also involving the West Indies in January 1997 and on the fast, bouncy tracks, Zahid met with great acclaim.

‘The Prince’, Brian Lara proclaimed that Zahid was the ‘one of fastest he had ever faced’ while pace bowling great and compatriot Michael Holding stood up to take notice of the Pakistani pacer with a chest-on action reminiscent of the legendary West Indian bowlers of the 70s and 80s.

A Test series against Sri Lanka followed the ODIs but Pakistan's star in the making picked up a back injury which put him out of cricket for almost a year.

The 22-year-old returned to the fold against India in the 1998 Sahara Cup in Toronto and dazzled the batting line up of Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Gangul, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. The broken back seemingly had not taken a toll on the young pacer's speed, just yet.

Australia bore the brunt of Zahid in the only Test the bowler played when Mark Taylor's side visited Pakistan later in 1998 and the visiting captain gave testimony of it.

“Coming from 50 yards and bowling flat out, it was a matter of survival earlier in the innings. They are really quick, faster than I have faced anyone,” Taylor told Dawn in an interview then.

He was talking about Zahid and Akhtar, who were filling in for the injured Akram and Younis.

Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction before Zahid suffered a recurrence of his back injury, effectively ending his career.

He only played 5 Tests and 11 ODIs.

In an interview with Dawn in 2011, Zahid looked back at the time his career took off before it came crashing down the very next moment.

Dream start

“Those were the golden days of my life, I was extremely happy with my performance and was greatly inspired by the legendary duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. No one, absolutely no one can steal those memories from me.”

Agony in Sri Lanka

I told the team management that I was struggling with my back, despite my complaint I was forced to bowl. As a rookie I could not turn them away, by the time the series finished my back gave in and I spent one year in rehabilitation from a career threatening stress fracture.”

Flat-deck Peshawar

“The Ws were unavailable for the match, Shoaib Akhtar and I were summoned to bowl on a flat deck and Mark Taylor scored a sublime triple century.”

Sweat and blood

“I guess they did not like my face, I tried my hardest every time, ran in ball after ball, my passion was cricket and playing for Pakistan was the realisation of a childhood dream, yet I was never given a consistent run despite bowling in great pain.”

Rotten system

“The likes of Saleem Elahi, Mohammad Akram, Aamer Nazir, Fazle Akbar, Shadab Kabir and Asim Kamal were all world class yet were lost to the system. The irony is that these players are not from one particular province, they are from all over the country which means that any player from any region/province can suffer at the hands of the administration.”

Zahid goes through 'The Wall'

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