After five first-class matches in which he had bowled only 84 overs and taken seven wickets, Ahmed was selected to tour England with the
Pakistan team in 1967. Owing to injuries among his teammates he played 11 of the 17 first-class matches and bowled more overs than any of the other pace bowlers, taking 25 wickets at 34.52. Reporting on the tour in
Wisden,
Qamaruddin Butt referred to him as "an acquisition". In his first match on tour he took 5 for 86 (the only time in his career when he took more than three wickets in an innings) against
Kent. In the match against
Minor Counties he went to the wicket in the second innings with the score at 94 for 9 and the Pakistanis leading by only 72. Although his previous best score was only 15, he hit 69, "driving fearlessly and snicking luckily", added 124 for the last wicket with
Salahuddin, and then took two early wickets to help the Pakistanis to a narrow victory. With
Saleem Altaf injured and
Arif Butt out of form, Ahmed was selected for the Second Test. He took 2 for 72 off 37 overs in the first innings, but Pakistan lost, and Altaf, fit again, replaced him for the Third Test. He played for a BCCP XI against the touring International XI in 1967–68, and for a strong President's XI against the touring Commonwealth XI a few weeks later, but without notable success. He played for another BCCP XI against the MCC in 1968–69, and was selected to replace
Asif Masood as Pakistan's leading pace bowler for the Second Test in Dacca. His selection owed more to the
BCCP's desire to include an East Pakistan player to try to appease local political protesters than to his own or Masood's form. and Masood returned to the side for the Third Test in
Karachi. According to
Shaharyar Khan, it was not the only time Ahmed was used for political purposes: "There was a club-level cricketer from Dhaka called Niaz Ahmed who was Pakistan's perennial 12th man for quite some time, the Pakistan Cricket Board attempting to give the entirely unconvincing impression that East Pakistan was on the verge of national representation. The fact was that no effort was made by the governments of Pakistan or by the cricket boards to promote cricket in East Pakistan." ==Later career==