Patience is a virtue that Zulfiqar Babar has in abundance and it has helped him through difficult times in his career. Despite playing his first international match for Pa­kistan – a Twenty20 game against West Indies in July 2013 – 12 years after his first class debut, the left-arm spinner has no regrets.

Since that T20 match, the son of Pakistan football international, Abdul Ghaffar, has made steady progress and is now Pakistan’s lead­ing spinner featuring in six T20Is, three ODIs and three Tests in a span of 15 months.

His best display came last week in the Dubai Test against Australia where he had a match haul of 7-155, including a 5-74 in the second in­nings that paved way for Pakistan’s dominant victory.

The 35-year-old is not bitter about his late entry into the inter­national circuit despite claiming 352 wickets in first class cricket.

“I wanted to keep working hard and I always thought whenever I will get an opportunity I will grab it and try to do well for the country,” Babbar said yesterday.

“Allah very well knows when to give someone what he needs and how much to give. So I have never got that feeling that I should have played before and if that would have happened I would have taken more wickets.

“I always hoped that I will play for Pakistan and work hard. As soon as I got the opportunity I performed.”

The start to Babar’s first class career with Multan in 2001-02 was not ideal and he was benched often.

He was not selected for a few sea­sons between 2006 and 2008 too, which he attributes to “politics”, before he made an amazing come­back in the 2009-10 season claim­ing 69 wickets at 16.42 in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy, inlcuding 10-143 in an innings. But it was his display in the 2012-13 season when he took 93 wickets in 13 games that landed him a spot in the Pakistan team.

Age is not a deterrant to Babar’s hunger for success and he is in­spired by captain Misbah-ul Haq (40) and Younis Khan (36).

“Till the time I’m fit I will continue to keep playing like Misbah and Younis. I will try to follow them and work as hard as them,” he said.