saeed made his test début on 17 january 1958 against the west indies at bridgetown. he made 65 in the second innings, at one stage partnering hanif mohammad who went on to make 337. saeed finished the series with 508 runs. he went on to captain his side in three drawn tests in 1968–69 but his career ended in controversial circumstances when he declared himself unfit for the third test against australia due to what he claimed was a back injury. in the previous test he had been involved in a heated altercation with dennis lillee and the pakistan management was sceptical about his injury. as a result said was sent home for "indiscipline". he finished his career with five test hundreds, making over 150 runs in three of them.