Bangladesh left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman has captured the imagination of the cricketing fraternity in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).

 

At 20 years of age and with little more than a year of international cricket behind him, the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler has already earned the nickname ‘Fizz’ because of his ability to unsettle the best of batsmen.

 

The first time I saw him in action was when he was just 18. It was one year before he made his international debut for Bangladesh through a Twenty20 International match in Dhaka. He came to play in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup held in UAE. Though Bangladesh performed poorly in this tournament, Mustafizur caught the attention with many three-wicket spells.

 

In his debut Twenty20 match in April last year against Pakistan, he took the prized wickets of veteran batsmen Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez. Bangladesh won that match by seven wickets and Mustafizur has never looked back after that. It was the start of the journey of an exciting bowler and it also coincided with the start of Bangladesh’s creditable performances in international cricket.

 

In June, Mustafizur showed what a deadly bowler he is to no other but the formidable Indian team. Mustafizur in his first match of the one-day series destroyed India’s batting line up with a spell of five for 50 and ensured Bangladesh a 79-run victory. He became only the 10th bowler in One Day International (ODI) to take five wickets on debut. In his second one-day match of the series, he bettered his performance by taking six wickets for 43 runs to give his country a six-wicket win.

 

Mustafizur did not rest on his laurels in ODI alone. When he was picked for Test cricket and in his debut match against South Africa at Chittagong, he bagged the man of the match award with a four-wicket spell in the drawn tie.

 

Speaking to Gulf News, UAE captain Amjad Javed, who played Mustafizur in the Asia Cup last February in Dhaka, said: “Mustafizur is really a tough bowler to play. In the same action he can bowl cutters and also yorkers at a speed of around 140 kmph. It is very difficult to pick his slower as well as faster ones. The fact that he is even able to trouble batsmen like Virat Kohli proves that he is a class bowler and will continue to create waves.”

 

Battle against all odds

 

Mustafizur’s rise to fame is a tale of battle against the toughest of odds. He hails from a small town of Satkhira in Khulna. He is the youngest among six children of his father, who is an ardent cricket lover. Mustafizur, along with his brother, used to travel nearly 40km from his home to get proper training and this resulted in him ignoring his education. Hence, Mustafizur does not understand any other language except Bengali.

 

Understandably, Mustafizur cannot often comprehend things that his teammates tell him nor can the team captain David Warner converse with him. However, whenever Warner has given him the ball, Mustafizur has come up with a wicket and also bowls brilliantly in the ‘death’.

 

Muttiah Muralitharan, the coach of the Sunrisers team, recently revealed that Mustafizur uses Google translator to understand what his teammates are telling him in English.

 

Incidentally, Mustafizur’s idol is Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir. In fact, the world has started to even compare the two.

 

Mustafizur’s biggest challenge will be in handling fame. The expectations of him are already high. If he can continue to focus on his line and length, like he has done diligently, and continue to sharpen his skills by maintaining the discipline needed for success, he will surely be among the leading wicket takers in world cricket soon.

 

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni gave him a big compliment after one of his brilliant spells, saying: “Being a left-armer is certainly an advantage but he mixed his deliveries really well, which was important. That was the main reason why he was so successful in this game.”

 

Mustafizur has many weapons to mix and trap any world class batsmen. Among the wickets he has bagged already are batsmen like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Rohit Sharma, Steven Smith, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Shane Watson.

 

Does a 20-year-old need anything more to announce that he has arrived?