He played all three formats of the game as a right arm fast medium bowler for the Pakistani cricket team.

[8] On 16 October 2020, after the final group-stage match of the 2020–21 National T20 Cup, Gul retired from all forms of cricket following a career that spanned twenty years.

[9][10] Gul was born on 15 October 1982[11] in Peshawar, Pakistan in a middle-class family and frequently played tape ball cricket.

[18][19] In February 2008, Gul signed with the Indian Premier League and was drafted by Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for US$150,000.

[22] In December 2008, Gul signed with the Western Warriors to compete in the Australian domestic 2008–09 KFC Twenty20 Big Bash tournament.

[25] Gul had signed a one-year contract with Gloucestershire to play in 2007, but the Pakistan Cricket Board failed to give them their permission.

Gul was retained for the ODIs against Bangladesh, taking a List A best five for 17 in nine overs in the third match, and ended with 11 wickets in the 5–0 series win.

After coming on as first-change bowler, Gul dismissed Virender Sehwag in his second over, and then bowled unchanged for 12 overs either side of lunch to take five Indian top order wickets – including Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, who both had Test batting averages above 50, as did Sehwag.

Gul finished with five for 31 in his spell, earning him commendation from ESPNcricinfo journalist Dileep Premachandran, who praised his "control of line and length",[34] and he was also named Man of the Match despite conceding runs at five an over in the second innings in a nine-wicket win.

He got his opportunity with the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa.

The spell made him the first bowler in history to take a five wickets in a Twenty20 international, and he held the record of best T20 bowling figure until 8 August 2011, when surpassed by Ajantha Mendis (6/16).

[39] Mutterings were made about a possible correlation between ball tampering and the exorbitant amounts of reverse swing he was able to extract, but he denied them categorically: "whenever an Asian bowler performs and uses the reverse-swing, the Western cricketing countries raise the issue of ball-tampering against them.

[43] He was also part of the Pakistan team that lifted the trophy at Lord's while also finishing as the leading wicket taker of the tournament for the second consecutive time.

Gul appeared in all three of Pakistan's group matches in the 2007 World Cup taking four wickets with an economy rate of 3.13, only Shane Bond of those to deliver 100 balls was more economical.

In April 2022, Gul was appointed as bowling consultant by the Afghanistan national cricket team for a training camp which lasted 15 days.

[54][55][56] On 15 March 2023, Gul was appointed the interim bowling coach of the Pakistani cricket team for the Afghanistan series.