look this guy is listening to his Publishist (PR) his wife...
Shahriar’s sense of humility
Azad Majumder . Bogra
Shahriar Nafees is best known to the Bangladesh media not only for his murderous approach against the bowlers but also his apparent careless attitude to the people he is surrounded by.
However, that was not the case on Monday when he came to practice at the Bogra Shaheed Chandu Stadium with other members of the Bangladesh team. During a short break, Shahriar did something very unlike him by walked up to a group of journalists and exchange greetings.
The journalists were very surprised by the gesture showed towards them but there was more to come. The Bangladesh Cricketer of the Year for no reason at all sought their blessings so that he could be successful during the remainder of the series.
Once he left, the journalists tried to find out what compelled the southpaw to be so humble especially at a time when his bat is doing all the talking.
Some credit went to his wife Ishita, who joined with him in Bogra before the second match. But the popular notion was that success on the field has prompted Shahriar to change his off the field persona, which is crucial for a superstar-in-the-making.
The passage Shahriar has been walking through for the last few months is not only a dream for a Bangladeshi cricketer but for many others in the world too who would love to make a lasting impression in the game.
Shahriar narrowly missed a world record on Sunday after he fell 33 runs short from making three consecutive centuries something that had been by three other players previously in the 35-year-old history of one-day cricket.
But he still earned rave reviews from the fans, media and local cricket experts as his last three one-day matches have fetched 295 runs. His average in last three games also remains the same as the batsman had remained unbeaten in his two century-plus innings.
At least 45 batsmen scored two consecutive centuries in one-day history but none remained unbeaten on each occasions. In a small sense, Shahriar has in fact made a world record even before he started his 67-run knock in the second match in Bogra.
But that would have been very insignificant had Shahriar managed to get those 33 runs to join Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar and Herschelle Gibbs, the three other batsmen to have scored three consecutive one-day centuries.
Any other player could have been disappointed for days having missed a record of this stature but not Shahriar, who showed signs of his growing maturity by sidetracking the issue after the six-wicket win on Sunday.
‘Yes, I am disappointed to a degree missing the record. But the most important thing is that we won the match convincingly. Nothing is more significant than the team,’ explained Shahriar.
‘I heard something about the record before the match, but my focus was on the team’s victory. As that has been achieved I am not regretting missing a hundred,’ he added.