Mustafizur Rahman has played four games in the Indian Premier League this season. In the first three games, he played well but couldn’t inspire his team to a victory. In the last match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, however, the Bangladeshi was spanked all over the park as he gave away 55 runs in his four overs.

But as the comedy of irony that life is, Mumbai won against the Challengers despite Mustafizur coming up with this worst performance. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma defended the young pacer in the post-match press conference by saying that these things can happen to a bowler while also acknowledging his importance in the previous games.

"Our pace battery has been doing the job for a number of years. Mustafizur is playing for the first time [with Mumbai Indians] and he had a great few games. He didn't go well today but these things can happen. Sometimes you will be consistent, sometimes it won't be your day, but for us, it was important that we came together as a group and put that collective performance.”

Meanwhile, in a post-match analysis with Cricbuzz, Zaheer Khan also defended the Bangladesh star as he discarded suggestions that Mustafizur has lost his touch and claimed that the Cutter Master possesses the X-Factor and wicket-taking ability that makes him a threat to watch out for.  

"He is still going to be a threat I think because he has got that X-Factor. In crucial games, he can still hit the ground running and have that kind of impact on the game for sure because he has got that wicket-taking ability. What has happened is that he is going for runs, yes, but he has still got that wicket-taking ability.”

Despite Mustafizur having a mare in the last game, he has still had a decent tournament thus far. He has taken 5 wickets in the tournament but his economy-rate of 9.03 is something that he could be concerned about.

 

Picture credit: BCCI