There's an irresistible poignancy to the honours board at the Pindi Cricket Stadium which pays tribute to all fast bowlers to have taken ten wickets in a Test here. The wooden board nearly spans the length of the entire wall, unfurling like parchment to reveal what you might at first expect to be a who's who of household names to have plied their trade here. Instead, there's just a single name on an otherwise blank board, perhaps a mute tribute to a man who, if life was fair, would have appeared on it, and other honours boards, with much greater frequency. "1996, Mohammad Zahid, 11-130", is all it says.
The story about Zahid's career-ending back injury soon after that debut Test is almost too depressing to recall, yet it must never lose its use as a reminder of the consequences of mismanaging a young fast bowler. Especially at a time when, over the last few years, several in the Pakistan squad appear to be struggling with confidence, pace and form. Hasan Ali's back injury, and a drop of form before that, has seen his development stall, while workload issues played a prominent part in Mohammad Amir choosing to walk away from the longest format at 27 last year. With the other quick bowlers Pakistan are counting on to fill the void - mainly Naseem Shah and Mohammad Musa - still not out of their teens, what Mohammad Abbas and Shaheen Afridi would be able to offer was always crucial on a day Azhar Ali put Bangladesh in to bat.
While Faheem Ashraf - who Azhar had indicated might play as Pakistan look to develop a fast-bowling allrounder - was absent from the side, that decision to bowl was in line with what the Pakistan captain had said at the press conference the previous day. His conviction that home advantage for Pakistan meant greener, quicker, bouncier pitches that favoured the quick bowlers might have been somewhat startling, particularly since Yasir Shah was the bedrock of much of Pakistan's success in the UAE for the best part of the previous decade.
But with Yasir sitting out in Rawalpindi against Sri Lanka and taking just two out of the 20 wickets Pakistan snared in Karachi, the decision to bowl meant one thing: Azhar was challenging Abbas and Afridi to make early inroads on a surface that still retained plenty of grass. It was imperative Pakistan take advantage before it began to brown from activity and bake under brilliant winter sunshine.
Azhar's patience wouldn't be tested for long. Three balls in, Afridi angled one in across the right-hander debutant Saif Hassan, the ball acquiring enough movement to take the outside edge through to Asad Shafiq at second slip. Abbas wouldn't be left far behind; he took just four balls to make his first breakthrough, with Tamim Iqbal, fresh of a triple-hundred last week, managing just 3 as he fell over playing one that came back in, with Pakistan's review rewarded.
It's easy to be blasé about the nascent talent of Afridi enjoying success against Bangladesh at home, but even easier to forget he is still only 19. This is just his eighth Test, and against his wishes, he has been thrust into the role of a senior bowler due to Amir's retirement. Pakistan can neither afford to drop nor rest him at present, and while it is easier to be forgiving of Naseem having an off day, Afridi is expected to deliver regularly, despite only having played four more Tests.
And for the most part, that's what he continues to do. On Friday, he persisted with the fullish length that brought him Hassan's wicket in the first over, possessing the maturity to be patient outside off stump, comfortable in the knowledge sooner or later they would be forced into a prod they weren't in the best position to execute. It is, to a tee, what happened to Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque, who would feel for a ball he was best off leaving, giving Pakistan a breakthrough just as a fifty partnership between Mominul and Nazmul Hassan looked like it might start to turn the morning in the visitors' favour.
Even when it became palpably clear there was little swing or seam on offer, Afridi stuck to his plans. In the first two sessions, he would bowl just 17 balls short of a good length, while the overwhelming majority - 58 out of the 90 he bowled, were on a length or fuller outside off stump. That type of delivery would bring him his third wicket of the morning, too, Mahmudullah chasing a wide one wildly outside off, giving Shafiq the opportunity to pull off a screamer to make further inroads into Bangladesh's middle order.
It helped that Abbas was back to his metronomic best once more - his inefficacy for large parts of the last few Tests has been the cause of much angst in Pakistan - applying the squeeze that intensified the pressure on Bangladesh. It is unlikely without Abbas' miserliness from the other end that Haque and Mahmudullah would have gone chasing to Afridi's wider deliveries, and Afridi would acknowledge Abbas' presence helped him learn much about Test match bowling.
Abbas' line and length map is far easier to understand; all but five of his deliveries were pitched on a length, either just outside off stump or in line with the stumps. He would bowl two deliveries fuller, and none shorter, than that; his pitch map might as well have been a pound coin placed bang on a length around off stump. Only Abbas could have a day where he registered figures of 17-9-19-2 and not come away with too much attention. It is no coincidence when he has a good day, his fellow bowlers tend to, too.
The final wicket, fittingly, was a combined effort between the two, Afridi bowling the ball Abu Jayed deflected to Abbas on the leg side. He lurked outside the crease as his concentration slipped, and Abbas' direct hit caught him short. It was a wicket that would be credited to neither, but credit wasn't in short supply for either bowler on the day.
Zahid may soon have company on that honours board, but Pakistan will do well to ensure it is only the positives that Zahid and Afridi end up having in common.