When he made his international debut during the 7th Pakistan-India series 1998, his role was only to come from the bench for penalty corner drills.
Abbas scored his 267th international goal during the Champions Trophy in Amritsar, India to equal the 22-year-old record of Dutch penalty corner specialist Paul Litjens on 4 October 2004[REF] and then on 8 October he broke the Dutchman's record [REF].