There was a time when it was not at all certain that Zulqarnain Haider, a tall and lanky wicketkeeper from Lahore, would ever build on his Pakistan debut, which came in the midst of a heavy loss in a Twenty20 against South Africa at The Wanderers in February 2007. But after some good work in the domestic leagues he found a place on the 2010 England tour as Kamran Akmal's understudy, and when the senior keeper's lapses in the field became too frequent to ignore Haider was given a Test debut against England at Edgbaston. He was out to his first ball in Test cricket, feathering a catch behind off Stuart Broad, but his characterful and determined 88 in the second innings formed the basis of Pakistan's fightback.

That innings was a testament to his character, as Haider's road to the top has been rocky, to say the least. He took part in the Under-15 World Cup in England in the summer of 2000 at the age of 13 only six months after his mother's death from cancer. His mother's dying wish had been that one of her four sons should travel abroad. Zulqarnain, the second, was the only one with the talent to excel as a cricketer, and it was the promise he made to her that drove him towards the top. Four years later, at the Under-19 World Cup in Dhaka, he scored a vital 23 not out from 18 balls, and claimed three catches, as Pakistan took the title in the final against West Indies.

Further tragedy was to strike as Haider prepared for his Test debut, as three days before the Edgbaston Test his father, Syed Raza Haider, was hospitalised with hepatitis C. He had an ulcer in his digestive system that caused profuse bleeding, leading to a coma. On the first morning of the Test, he briefly regained consciousness, but when Haider made his debut with wasn't sure if his father was even aware of the step his son has just taken. In the event, his father recovered enough to watch his son's sterling second-innings effort on television from his hospital bed. Although Pakistan still lost the match, Haider showed that he had the potential to succeed at cricket's top level.