[Maysun]

Originally Posted by rinathq
Before making an international debut, we have many who "can" become the 2nd best
Shabbir, Asif, Farhad Hossain and even the new and improved Shuvagata. There are couple more but point is, they are prospects until they enter the international arena.After they enter, they fade away. Riyad would have faded away if it wasnt for his expertise in the longer format. Nasir would have been gone if he didnt play some great knocks against Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Right now we also have Zia and Reza. Zia looks like he can cement a spot in the T20 squad at most. I dont see him anywhere near the ODI line up. Heck even in T20, he has lot more work to do. And Reza, well He would have been the perfect solution but lacks on skills, consistency and many other areas.
So for now, Its Riyad for Test and ODI, and for T20, Its still him but I think if Mash stays away from injury and works on his batting skills, he can develop into a T20 allrounder until someone new arrives.

Now many argue that Riyad is not a match winner and therefore cannot be the 2nd best. But I think he is not the match winner because of the management and coaching staff. Maybe he is not a match winner but an innings builder? One thing is for sure, Riyad cannot hit from the word Go. At least not most of the time. So I think he should be promoted up the order and played at 1 down. if he can bowl economical and consistently score a stable 30s to 40s thats good enough to be a second best in Bangladesh.

I think you contradicted yourself a bit there. As you said, Riyad cannot hit from the word go, why promote him to no.3? The batsman playing one down should have the ability to capitalize on the powerplay and fielding restrictions. We haven't found our proper and a effective no.3 as of yet, but I certainly don't mind seeing Riyad play his anchor role at no.4.