[al Furqaan]

ashraful is an enigma...of course we all pray that he ceases to be one. but he is the most talked about and will be until the day his career is over.

is ash maturing?

reasons to say yes:

- never bashed minnows, does so now - although still struggles against zimbabwe (only two 50+ in last 10 games against them).
- batting average has improved slowly but steadily (from 16 to 24), with a plateau in strike rate indicating he's not just blocking balls to last longer at the crease
- plays a longer, if more boring innings, more often these days really starting with 2008's Kitply Cup...still has occaisional brain farts the most heinous (IMO) being first ODI vs ZIM in January 2009 and Ireland dismissal in T20 WC.
- perhaps most potent: last two years and 25+ innings of DPL have fetched him batting averages of 41 and 37, respectively. has he ever done this before (my guess is "no")?
- before, ash played a "responsible" knock once every fourth or fifth innings, and succeeded every fourth or fifth attempt at a responsible knock. nowadays, he attempts cautious knocks at least every other game, and succeeds about every other try --> 5 fifty-pluses in last 14 outings.

reasons to say no:

- 8 innings against zimbabwe he struggled, with 4 bulawayo innings being on the flattest of tracks...passed 20 just once or twice in those 8 innings.
- we've always seen him score just to secure his place in the side

in my opinion, the single biggest problem, and the most frightening is the last "no" reason. if, key word if, ashraful corrects this, then he will be a great player, at least for us.

the only possible remedy, is for ash to constantly have siddons pressuring him with being dropped no matter how well he's been playing. but even that won't work for obvious reasons.

the fact of the matter is BD team is slowly improving, but at the same time we're not too good for him yet, which is why when alok, aftab, SN, were all expendable at some point, ashraful never was.