Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman Biography

Mustafizur Rahman is nowhere near as physically imposing as Taskin Ahmed or Mashrafe Mortaza; nor does he carry himself with the swagger of Shakib Al Hasan or Tamim Iqbal; but there is a good chance that Mustafizur will go down in history as a bigger match-winner for Bangladesh than any of them.
Standing at well under 6 feet and with hardly any muscle mass to speak of, Mustafizur looks less like a fast bowler and more like another one of Bangladesh’s army of left-arm spinners. He does not get the ball to seam or swing a long way, nor does he extract sharp bounce or pace from the wicket. Instead, Mustafizur has relentless accuracy and a tremendous slower ball.

Mustafizur represented Bangladesh in the 2014 Under-19 World Cup. He took only 9 wickets in 7 matches, but went for under 5 runs per over in every match barring one. His overall Under-19 record reads an unimpressive 13 wickets in 14 matches, but at an economy rate of merely 3.91 — unheard of in today's era.

This, coupled with his impressive stint in domestic cricket, prompted the selectors to give Mustafizur a chance in the home series against the visiting Pakistan in the T20I series in 2015. Mustafizur took 2 for 20 on international debut, accounting for Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez in a match Bangladesh won. For Mustafizur, the best was yet to come.

India toured Bangladesh soon after, and Mustafizur made his ODI debut at Dhaka in the first ODI. It was immediately apparent that there was something special at work: he took 5 for 50 to lead Bangladesh to a terrific victory. It was not a flash in the pan; he followed up his debut performance with an incredible 6 for 43 as Bangladesh beat India again to earn a historic ODI series win.

He took 5 wickets in the 3 ODIs against South Africa that followed in what was another series win. He also made his Test against South Africa at Chittagong, taking 4 for 37 in the first innings. Sadly rain marred the series and he did not get any more wickets after that.

Mustafizur and followed up with 8 wickets — including his third ODI five-wicket haul — in 3 matches against Zimbabwe to cap off the year on a high. Mustafizur’s first year of international cricket had made people around the world sit up and take notice. In 9 ODIs he captured 26 wickets at a stunning average of 12.34 and a strike rate of 17.3 with 3 five-wicket hauls. There were also 6 T20I and 4 Test wickets to go with it.

However, Mustafizur had played all the matches at home so far. With Asia Cup T20 2016 being played in Bangladesh as well, it was not until the ICC T20 World Cup 2016 that Mustafizur played in unfamiliar conditions.

As it transpired, the foreign conditions did nothing to hamper Mustafizur: an injury meant he played only 3 matches in the T20 World Cup, but he snared 9 wickets in those games, including 5 for 22 against New Zealand at Kolkata. Mustafizur had announced himself as a force to be reckoned with, even if he did not look like it physically.

Following his outrageous success against India, Mustafizur was picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2016 player auction for a relatively moderate INR 1.4 crore (one-seventh of the price of Pawan Negi). In a team full of impressive bowlers, Mustafizur was the standout performer for SRH, and was one of the finest bowlers of the tournament.

Whether or not Mustafizur can keep up his performances remains to be seen, but as things stand, the diminutive left-arm medium-pacer has the world at his feet.

Shiamak Unwalla

Mustafizur Rahman Batting & Fielding Averages

Career

Avg

100s

50s

Test

ODIs

T20s

World Cup

Mustafizur Rahman Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		--