Mustafizur hones his skills for Test comeback

|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh pace spearhead Mustafizur Rahman said he doesn’t take personal criticism very seriously and tries to work on his seaming ability during the corona pandemic period.

Mustafizur in 2015 made his debut against India while he showed his potential and became the first player to be the Man of the Match in both ODI and Test debut.  The pacer claimed 13 wickets, which is still the best for any debut player in cricket.

However, the rising star lost his rhythm and almost faded away from his potential due to the injury scars. But the left-arm pacer made his return in the 2019 World Cup, where he picked up 20 wickets and made himself the top four highest wicket-taker in that mega event.

The 24-year-old paceman recently in an interview to a leading Bengali daily stated that he had his downfall but didn’t ever take the criticism of him seriously. Even Mustafiz, considered the lethal bowler for his mysterious bowling that was full with a dose of slower, off-cutter and in-cutter and Yorker, cleared the air about why he was not able to perform up to the mark.

“I don’t think about it. Now the batsmen know me very well if you compare it with the beginning then that will not be right. You also have to see when I bowl in the match. Now, I have to come mostly in the last five overs. At that time the batsmen are set, they are aggressive, the fielding is defensive,” Mustafizur Rahman said.

Mustafizur has regularly been seen in the white bowl cricket after his surgical operation. But there are speculations in vogue that Mustafizur doesn’t like to play the five-dayer match much.

But the cutter master said that he is eyeing to get a place in red-ball cricket and for this, he has been practicing for a long time and trying to learn new ability to use it in the games.

“I didn’t play two series in February, but I worked with Gibson [Ottis Gibson]. You’ll see in my last series [T20 series against Zimbabwe in March] that the ball was going inside edge most of the time. If it goes regular, playing the Test matches will then be easier for me. If the ball goes straight to the seam, that is also very good. Batsmen will not easily guess me,” the pacer said.

Like others, the young paceman is also keeping his eye on the England and West Indies Test match happening in Southampton and trying to learn the new rules of cricket.