Soumya Sarkar- Cricket’s new Hitman

Bangladesh opener, Soumya Sarkar has left everyone spellbound with his stroke play in his recent matches. Every shot is admirable without being a fluke and played keeping in mind the bowlers’ shifts in lines and lengths. He seems comfortable transferring weight to the back and front foot from his balanced stance. The gaps he finds has so much to do with the suppleness of his wrists.

Since 2012 he has scored around 65% of his runs through boundaries. He is third in the list of players with most runs scored through boundaries, just below Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle and surprisingly above the Boom Boom Afridi who is on the fourth spot.

Sarkar is showing Bangladesh how a batsman with a winning mindset bats like. In the 3rd ODI against SA he scored 90 odd runs of 75 balls and shared a first wicket partnership of 154 with Tamim Iqbal powering Bangladesh to their 3rd consecutive series win  over a major test playing nation.He was awarded the man of the series for scoring  205 runs in the recently concluded 3 match series against SA for his 2 back to back winning knocks. He is a team player as when he got out on 90,he wasn’t sad that he missed out on a well deserved 100 but he had a smile on his face which showed that he was satisfied with his performance and he knew that he had put Bangladesh in a strong position. Later he regretted on letting a 10 wicket win slip . He also scored a match winning 88 and shared another century partnership with Tamim Iqbal in the previous match to help the hosts level the series

In the 1st ODI against India, he held his stance when he drove the ball past the fielders. He would have enjoyed his eight boundaries and a six in his 40-ball stay but probably not how it ended. An innings that started with much grace ended with Sarkar finding himself short of the crease by a Suresh Raina direct hit. In the 14th over, three balls before his dismissal, Sarkar played the finest of upper cuts. You probably wouldn’t have imagined Sarkar playing that shot before that, but the young lad has a variety of shots in his kitty. He scored runs wherever Indian bowlers bowled, even if it was wayward. It’s hard to tell what would have happened had Sarkar stayed longer, but it could have meant much more entertainment for the Mirpur crowd that was lapping up his boundaries.

Earlier in the series against Pakistan, the 22-year-old left-hander smashed an unbeaten 127 as the fired-up hosts surpassed Pakistan’s modest 250 in the 40th over at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium winning the series 3-0.

Sarkar’s languid leg-side shots tell what a natural batting talent he is, while his off-side shots tells you that he is not the one to let go off opportunities.He plays the balls on its merits,let’s go of the good ones and dispatches the bad ones. His new shot  ‘the periscope’ has gained much popularity.He likes to play his shots and take on the bowlers as he hammered  Kagiso Rabada, who took 6-16 in the opening match of the tour, for 3 consecutive fours. With his recent performances he surely has gained a reputation of a fearless batsman.

Edited by Shivang Aggarwal