During his playing days, Shahid was known for his running ability, dribbling of the ball[6] and push which was as fast as a hard hit.

[8]"Zafar at left-out and Shahid at right-in positions penetrated the best of the defences around the world with their superb understanding and passing of the ball.

Zafar also pointed [out] that Shahid was instrumental in the V. Baskaran-led India winning the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games.

“Shahid played a crucial role for India in that Olympics, otherwise we would have been [facing] difficulty,” Zafar, who was part of that team, pointed [out].

With the left hand on top of the handle and the right half low down around the centre of the stick he used to essay this shot with a minimum back lift and slam the ball towards his partner-teammate to make an early and accurate pass.

[13] Shahid was the product of the Sports College Lucknow from where emerged a few other stars of the 1980s like Ravinder Pal Singh, his teammate at the Moscow Olympics (1980), Rajinder Singh Rawat who played in goal in the Los Angeles Olympics (1984) and many others who went on to don the national colours at the junior and senior international level.