During a recent interview, Bangladesh pace bowling coach Allan Donald said that they were not considering experienced pacer Mustafizur Rahman to come during the powerplay as he wanted ruthless bowling during that point in time.
According to the South African legend, the Tigers need to be aggressive during the powerplay as that is the norm in modern-day cricket and Mustafizur doesn’t fit in the category with the present set-up comprising Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud and Shoriful Islam.
Mustafizur’s recent performance also validated the statement of the Bangladesh pace bowling coach considering he seemed to be playing the role of holding the batsmen during the middle overs of the game and did that quite efficiently with his cutter and slower deliveries.
Mustafizur, who was rested after the opening game against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, made a comeback against India in their last game of the tournament and put up an impressive show with the ball picking 3-50.
The left-arm pacer turned out to be effective with the old ball more than anything else as he had given away 31 runs in the first four overs without any success but he came back strongly when he was asked to show his magic in the death overs.
Many felt that the two-paced wickets in Sri Lanka helped him against India as it was suitable for cutters and slowers which were too hot to handle for the lower-order batting unit of their Asian neighbours.
However, Mustafizur on Thursday showed that he still has something to offer with the new ball and what impressed the most was the way he attacked to pick up a wicket which was something missing for a while.
The way the 28-year-old got rid of Finn Allen (nine), courtesy of a brilliant catch by Nurul Hasan Sohan at behind the wicket, only showed he can still make the new ball talk as Allen hardly had an answer to the length ball that was pitched on the leg stump and took the edge.
Since picking that wicket of Allen, Mustafizur was keen on trying different things that included bowling some short balls while he also tested the batsmen with his angled deliveries and quite surprisingly it was quite different from the way he bowled in the recent past where his major focus only remained on checking runs rather than going for wicket.
It can be a breath of fresh air seeing him remove Chad Bowes (one) when the batter failed to negotiate his swinging delivery while he trapped Henry Nicholls (44) plumb in front to end the day with 3-27 from his seven overs.
Although the overcast condition helped Mustafizur a lot to shine with the new ball, Bangladesh can definitely heave a sigh of great relief after his terrific performance just before the World Cup.