Mushfiq: The Dream Fulfilled

[al Furqaan]

The short history of our cricket has always been filled with failed talents and overhyped busts. From Al Shahriar to Ashraful, the elder Iqbal, Aftab and Alok, and from Junaid to Zunaed, A to Z has been covered by batsmen who've failed for one reason or multiple to succeed at the highest level. But with Mushfiqur Rahim, have we finally found the exception to this painful rule?

I think so.

Mohammad Ashraful was universally hailed as the most naturally gifted batsman produced by Bangladesh. Sadly, Ash himself understood that phrase much too literally as he usually gifted his wicket away quite naturally in course of an innings. His failure was most difficult to swallow for us fans, who had early on dubbed him as "our Sachin".

Sachin he was most certainly not, but the composite of attributes that Ashraful brought to the crease were mesmerizing, even if never fully harnessed. Of all the batsmen I've seen since I started following cricket full-time in 2003, only Aftab Ahmed came close.

However, it was during India's 2010 tour to Bangladesh that I first dared to think that the dream of having our very own Sachin might be realized, not in the form of the youngest centurion, but in the form of a baby-faced WK-bat from Bogra.

Indeed, little Mushy, embodies everything we had expected or hoped to achieve through Ashraful. While Shakib and Tamim might be more well known to the opposition and to fans across the world, both of them have at least one fatal flaw. Mushfiq has none.

Mushfiq's technique is actually even more compact, leading to strokes which travel mostly along the carpet. His range of stroke play is just as extensive, and he has a greater ability to bat in all gears, according to match situation. His batting is always easy on the eyes. His dedication and fitness are exemplary as is his physical toughness to bat through the pain of multiple injuries. Mentally, he's also strong enough to guide the team single-handedly and bat in clutch situations. He is also the only batsman on the team who can play all three formats equally well. He can find the boundaries when needed in the limited overs forms, and more importantly can rotate the strike and keep the runs flowing by working the ball around the field and rarely gets bogged down. Even the one glaring technique flaw he had - a high backlift that left him vulnerable to full and fast deliveries in line with the stumps - seems to have been corrected because it has been a while since he has been bowled by even the quickest of bowlers in today's game.

Thus I think it is quite obvious to say that Mushfiq is the best batsman we've produced to date. He has only recently started batting in the top 4 in ODIs full time, despite having some of his best early innings at that position in the past. We are now beginning to see that Mushfiq is wasted batting down the order in the limited overs format. It should be apparent that his wicket-keeping will never be top class, and due to that his batting at #6 is a huge disservice to our Test team. Mushy has the technique, temperament, and skill to bat at #3 and solve that problem for us permanently, but it doesn't appear as thought that will happen any time soon.

Note: While its still early, from what I've seen of Mominul, I believe he will surpass Rahim as the greatest Bangladesh batsman of all time. A Test batting average of 75 is no mean feat regardless of the strength of opposition (all teams are higher ranked than Bangladesh in any case) or the flatness of the wicket. Should Mominul maintain an average in excess of 50, he will have the numbers to back his position as Mushfiq's batting enantiomer.

[Ajfar]

Mushy is the first player in our short history to have made it/turned it all around despite having a 'mediocre' start to his career. We always knew Mushy had talents coming into the national team, but the question remained whether he was ever going to live up to the expectation just like countless other BD players who put on the national team jersey. In the past, we kept giving so called talented players chances after chances (Alok, Aftab, Ashraful and the list goes on and on) despite failing over and over again. But none of them were ever able to turn it all around. Mushy is the first player that seems to have managed turned it all around.

It's hard to justify why Mushy batted so low down the order early on in his career, given the fact that he did used to struggle a lot against the new ball. But despite his failures and his wicket keeping deficiencies we stuck to him, and it seems like the struggle paid off. For the first time, our broken method of sticking with a talented player despite not performing finally paying off.

I think we need to dig up the "Mushy will be Bangladesh Cricket's Golden Boy by JS" thread. We all thought that baldy was high on something. I think I speak for everyone when I say, we are all happy to be wrong.

[Vua]

Problem with our players is they start on a high and then fame get to their heads, they become complacent , their careers take a nosedive and then they get kicked out of the team.

[Tiger444]

Good posts Al and Ajfar. We would do well if we could produce more Mushy's. Younger players would do well learning from him.

I think it's also best he takes off the gloves as well in all forms and give it to Anamul. It's time we play him as a specialist batsman. He's just too good of a player to play down at 6 in Tests. He's a quality player and one of the most experienced. We need him at 3 in Tests where we already have problems.

[Navo]

Who uncovered Mushy and threw him into the absolute deep end at Lords in 2005 when he was still 16? I think I read somewhere that it was Faruk, the current chairman of selectors. Interesting.

[godzilla]

Originally Posted by Vua
Problem with our players is they start on a high and then fame get to their heads, they become complacent , their careers take a nosedive and then they get kicked out of the team.

True for most but this dude has that Ganguly factor within himself. Even after taking on captaincy (unlike mr tubby and ball scratcher) he didn't let it go over his head. It's not like he is not a start in bangladesh and yet he is still a humble man. Seems like he works hard too. Can't say the same for our two most famous players.

[22Yards]

I will remember the lofted six on square leg by him and cherish for days to come. WOW that one came out of nowhere. and made it look so easy.

[Gowza]

He's got to a level now where we should seriously consider playing him just as a specialist batsman.

[ahnaf]

In last two year,mushy has been phenomenal.. Our best batsman atm, no doubt about that..

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[betaar]

I would say drawing relationship with Mushy and Tendu is pre-mature; what is timely is to label him as one of the most technically correct batsmen of the last decade. I still rate Bulbul highly in terms of technique. Compared to our current bunch, the training those cricketers had was nothing but still Bulbul showed his class and was more technically correct than Mushy......but may be not for too long.

Mushy could be characterized an exception amongst BD cricketers or most sportsman in our country due to his work ethic. If there's one player that works hard at his game and constantly strives to get better that's Mushy and this is exactly why his performance curve has been on the up since his emergence. He is definitely not as talented as Ash, Tamim and Shak but he more than makes that up with hard work.

Mushy epitomizes the true meaning of hard work and its reward.....take a bow.

[Sohel]

Mushfiq has continued to deliver on the promise as our most sensible and sound batsman to date.

[mufi_02]

He has been the most improved player to date. He was really young and we stuck him (mainly because there was no other WK choice). I think this will only inspire the current and upcoming players to look at Mushy's transformation and start to emulate him.

Nasir is going through a slump now. He should learn from Mushy and work hard. We all know Nasir has the temperaments and the ability. His technique is little weak but he can definitely work on it.

From the current batch, I think we should stick with Anamul, Momimul, Shuvo. Persist with them and back them up during difficult times. They will only get better and after 3-4 years can be really good batsme. These players have shown early promises and won't turn out to be like Jahurul and Junaid Siddique.

In an ideal world, these corrections happen in domestics and age-level coaching. But we are far from ideal and we throw any promising player right into international arena and have them figure it out. For example, Unmukt Chand and Anamul are same age and both highly rated. But it will take Chand few more years to even get a spot in Indian team. But Anamul was thrown right into international scene, already made a ODI century, made many more mistakes.

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by mufi_02
He has been the most improved player to date. He was really young and we stuck him (mainly because there was no other WK choice). I think this will only inspire the current and upcoming players to look at Mushy's transformation and start to emulate him.

Nasir is going through a slump now. He should learn from Mushy and work hard. We all know Nasir has the temperaments and the ability. His technique is little weak but he can definitely work on it.

From the current batch, I think we should stick with Anamul, Momimul, Shuvo. Persist with them and back them up during difficult times. They will only get better and after 3-4 years can be really good batsme. These players have shown early promises and won't turn out to be like Jahurul and Junaid Siddique.

In an ideal world, these corrections happen in domestics and age-level coaching. But we are far from ideal and we throw any promising player right into international arena and have them figure it out. For example, Unmukt Chand and Anamul are same age and both highly rated. But it will take Chand few more years to even get a spot in Indian team. But Anamul was thrown right into international scene, already made a ODI century, made many more mistakes.

quiton de kock is also around the same age and was highly rated in u19s and had produced a very good domestic record before getting national colours, he then did quite poorly for quite a few matches before he suddenly got 3 tons in one series. i agree we should back these players.

[naim519]

Does it matter that 2 of our guys, Mominul and Musfiq are small framed? They're what, 5'3" or something? If BAN nurtures biggers batsman does it make it easier for them to score boundaries? Does small bodied players play a vital role in cricket?

[Navo]

Originally Posted by naim519
Does it matter that 2 of our guys, Mominul and Musfiq are small framed? They're what, 5'3" or something? If BAN nurtures biggers batsman does it make it easier for them to score boundaries? Does small bodied players play a vital role in cricket?

Tendulkar, Lara et al were small. Ponting was a bit taller but still often the smallest in the Oz team. Then there's Gavaskar and Bradman. It's probably harder to find exceptional 6+ foot batsmen than smaller ones.