[8] His early international career was considered patchy, with the occasional outstanding performance backed up by ordinary batting.

[9] Kaif earned himself a Test cap against South Africa while he was quite young at the age of 20, however he was soon dropped from the national side due to some ordinary performances.

Kaif made a good comeback to the Test side against Australia late in 2004 scoring two half-centuries.

With the arrival of Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid being appointed captain, the number 3 slot was given to either Irfan Pathan or Mahendra Singh Dhoni to accelerate the scoring rate.

Unfortunately, many times Kaif couldn't be in the "playing 11" as Yuvraj served the purpose of an all-rounder and was a senior player in the team.

Kaif represented the victorious Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008.

On 15 April 2009, he was axed by Rajasthan Royals team management, which cited his poor form and cost-cutting for the omission from the squad for the 2009 season.

[12] Kaif was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore to play in 2011 Indian Premier League, in the third round of bidding.

Later in an interview, Subrata Roy of Sahara India stated that he requested a third round of bidding because he thought that Kaif should find a place in an IPL team.

[13] In February 2017, Gujarat Lions named Kaif assistant coach of Brad Hodge for 2017 Indian Premier League.

He joined Indian National Congress and contested 2014 Loksabha election from Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh, and lost to Keshav Prasad Maurya of the BJP.