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India vs Bangladesh, Asia Cup 2018: Will the Mustafizur mag ic work again?
Since 2017, Mustafizur has been the joint most prolific bowler for Bangladesh in ODIs, having picked up 28 wickets, the same as captain Mashrafe Mortaza.
The year was 2015 and India had been recently dethroned as the kings of one-day cricket. Australia had reclaimed the World Cup on home turf, but India’s semi-final finish was actually seen as an improvement. The team had defied the odds to remain unbeaten in the World Cup, before bowing out in the semis to an inspired Australian side.
So, an upbeat team crossed the eastern border and went to Bangladesh where Virat Kohli led the team in a one-off Test is Fatullah, which was washed away due to incessant rains.
For the three-match ODI series, M ahendra Singh Dhoni was back in charge. Bangladesh had developed a reputation for being tough nuts to crack at home, but India were the odds-on favourites.
The first match saw the Bangladeshis put on a 300-plus total, but the Rohit Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan firm at the top of the order was making short work of the Bangladesh attack. While it was the pacy Taskin Ahmed who gave the hosts the initial breakthroughs, an unknown left-arm pacer broke the back of India’s batting.
A lanky teenager, by the Mustafizur Rahman, bowled in-cutters and changed his pace with such disguise that left the Indian heavyweights had no answer. Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were all sent back to the pavillion by the youngsters as he finished with figures of 5/50 on his debut.
The Indians had been left red faced by a youngster who could not even speak any other language apart from Bangla. The Indians did some firefighting in the press conferences that followed and came back with the intention to destroy the youngster, in the second match of the series.
As Mustafizur ran in to bowl the first over to Rohit Sharma, a capacity crowd at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur was chanting his name. Even before people could settle down from the initial euphoria of the start of the match, Mustafizur had sent Rohit Sharma back for a duck. The youngster was unstoppable that day. His exploits even pushing the otherwise ice-cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni to do something unusual. The Indian captain ran into the pacer while completing a run, and although Dhoni claimed later that the bowler was in his path, replays suggested otherwise.
Mustafizur ended the match with figures of 6/43 and India had lost their first ever ODI series against Bangladesh. The Indians did manage to get a consolation win in the final ODI but the series was all about Mustafizur Rahman and his ability change the pace of his deliveries at will, which caught batsmen unawares.
As the two teams lock horns in the Asia Cup on Friday, it is important look at Mustafizur’s numbers, who could well be the biggest threat to India on the slightly slow surface at the Dubai International cricket stadium.
Since 2017, Mustafizur has been the joint most prolific bowler for Bangladesh in ODIs, having picked up 28 wickets, the same as captain Mashrafe Mortaza. His average and strike-rate are the best for any Bangladesh bowler with 10 or more wickets during this period.
Not just that, he has picked up at least 2 or more wicket 10 out of the 19 innings during this period and has the best average among all bowlers against India in ODIs since 2015.
Not just that, Mustafizur is the second best left-arm pacer globally, behind New Zealand’s Trent Boult, since 2017. Mustafizur’s ability to maintain calm under immense pressure at such a young age has been the hallmark of his career so far.
India have been bitten more than once by this Bangladeshi prodigy, they will do well to be on the guard against him when the two teams come face to face at the Asia Cup.
