A right-handed batsman, who can double up as a back-up wicket-keeper, Yasir Hammed was an instant hit on the international scene- scoring twin hundreds on his Test debut against Bangladesh in Karachi in August 2003. An eye-catching stroke-player, Hameed was pretty good at driving the ball. He also enjoyed a happy start to ODIs, becoming the fastest Asian batsman to reach 1000 ODI runs. This was only the first half of the story.

Beset with frequent slumps in form, Hameed tailed off. He was often caught guilty of lazily swishing at balls well wide outside off. The failures began to outnumber the early success. Hameed was left out of the team following shoddy returns in the away series against West Indies in 2005.

He came back after some prolific scoring in the domestic circuit. More opportunities were offered after the enforced departure of Mohammad Yousuf but Hameed failed to garner consistency as a result of which he was sent packing from Pakistan's scheme of things. An unassuming cricketer, Hameed's laidback disposition only increases the poignancy of his story.

By Deivarayan Muthu