It is intriguing that a cricketing nation traditionally known for its spinners has scripted its tale of upsurge on the strength of its emboldened pace attack.
Bangladesh’s pace muscle, including some promising youngsters, has not only left India dumb-founded in the three-match one-day series, but has also snatched a historic series win for the home side.
A clear plan and strategic approach, backed by some professional support, have brought about the transformation in Bangladesh’s pace department. A group of coaches first spot talented players and groom them well before Zimbabwean Heath Streak, the bowling coach of the national side, takes over and charts the greenhorns’ onward journey.
In 2013, former Bengal pace ace Ranadeb Bose had worked with some up-and-coming talent of the country for one year and had ensured a good supply line for the Bangladesh national team. Mustafizur Rahman is one of the bowlers, identified by Bose, for the future.
If Mustafizur devastated the Indian batting line-up in the first two ODIs, other pacers, such as captain Masrafe Mortaza, the lively Rubel Hossain and the talented Taskin Ahmed, carried out their task well to complement him.
“We are happy to see the young fast bowlers coming through. During the World Cup, we managed to keep three bowlers on the park. A lot of credit goes to strength and conditioning coach (Stuart Karppinen of Australia), bowling coaches and physios to keep them on the park and developing these young fast bowlers through our academy system. I think we are in good hands,” observed Hathurusinghe.
Streak, a prominent fast bowler of his times, endorsed the head coach’s views. “Lots of young bowlers like Abul Hasan, Subashis Roy and (Mohammad) Shahid are coming through. All of them need to be supported. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has got the High Performance (HP) started again and hopefully that can carry on. When Rubel and Masrafe are retiring, we have the next group coming through,” said Streak.
The Zimbabwean underlined the need to look after the pacers well. “When Masrafe started, he was looked after throughout his career. We have to make sure to have the system to support not just the young players, but the old players as well.
“Everyone has a role to play. We are starting to see that Taskin and Rubel are showing a lot more experience and putting that into practice. In the first two games, their spells were under-rated. Rubel’s wicket on Sunday was at an important time for us. Taskin got Dhawan and Kohli in the first game, it was fantastic for us. Big positive. So we must take our hats off to those guys.”
Mortaza is delighted with the rise of the pacers, even though he acknowledges that there are not enough speedsters to meet the demands of Test cricket. “We have got two quicks above 140kmph. Taskin and Rubel are very good. Mustafiz has got variation, so we mix it up nicely. Test cricket is a problem, but in one-day cricket we always bowl tight lines.”
With a sound system in place and efforts by the BCB to lay a few seamer-friendly pitches, Bangladesh is expected to produce a batch of good fast bowlers to serve it in the longer version of the game.
