Mustafizur Rahman- The Bangladeshi Maestro

Bangladesh’s young left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman created history against India at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium,Mirpur on Sunday. With 11 wickets in 2 games he set a world record in ODIs.

Mustafizur made steady progress through the ranks and at 17 was called up to attend a pace bowling camp in Dhaka.

He soon made it to the Bangladesh U-19 squad. He played in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup and took nine wickets in six matches. It paved the way for his inclusion in the Bangladesh ‘A’ side while he also made his first-class debut for Khulna Division in 2013-14.

He got a surprise call-up to the senior national team in the T20 international against Pakistan, but he impressed one and all with his pace and movement. He picked up the wickets of Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez with slow off-cutters. The same delivery fetched him the scalps of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the first ODI against India on Thursday.

I believed that this time round Indian batsmen will decipher Mustafizur’s slower-ones this time around. How wrong was I? Mustafizur Rahman literally destroyed the Indian Batting. The 19 year old bowled a stump-to-stump line and kept a tight leash on the Indian run-rate. It was on the back his stellar show that Bangladesh bundled out India for a mere 200 and then overhauled the target easily to seal the three-match series.

The youngster didn’t struggle with his line and length against Indian batsmen. The left arm seamer has been consistent for a bowler of his calibre who doesn’t bowl express pace and relies heavily on his accuracy and slow off cutters to get breakthroughs. The youngster has impressed the critics with his slower balls. Sometimes he bowls them wide and keeping it full, so the batsmen can score only in one direction. So his attacking plan is very efficient and he is also backed by his skipper mashrafe mortaza

He said that his plan was to bowl dot balls. And then the stock ball – the cutters which worked beautifully and showed the results.

He may be a 19 yr old but has the accuracy of a veteran.