‘New-ball bowling in T20s takes courage’

Hasan Mahmud was a regular in the Bangladesh T20 squad before he became the spearhead of the Test side over the last two years. The 26-year-old pacer last played a T20 match for his country back in June 2025 against Pakistan in Lahore.

Following that Pakistan tour, Bangladesh moved on from Hasan the T20 bowler and opted for other options, and to be fair, there were many.

Alongside two of the most experienced quicks in Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam and Mohammad Saifuddin emerged as World Cup squad members.

Hasan, who has been the number one pacer in the red-ball game, fell behind the line. He needed to do something big to change the narrative and bring himself back into the “three-format bowler” discussion.

He did that during this Bashundhara Cement Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where he played 10 matches for Noakhali Express and grabbed 16 wickets (second-highest wicket-taker) at an average of 13.25 with the same strike rate. His economy was excellent as he went for just six runs per over in this tournament.

He needed to bring a bit more consistency in new-ball bowling, which has always been his strength, while adding another weapon to his death-bowling skills.

“This year maybe I wanted to see myself with a proper strategy, or at least that was the mentality. Bowling-wise, whether I could do a bit better with the new ball, or what the shortcomings were from the previous BPL,” Hasan told Daily Sun.

“Overall, with the white ball, how attacking you can be with the new ball — accuracy, swing, when and how to use it. That was the mindset. Either be economical or be wicket-taking — otherwise there’s no point,” he added.

The change came about after last year’s BPL, where he played 13 matches and took only 14 wickets, finishing the league as the 10th highest wicket-taker.

“I feel my accuracy was the best this time. I’m trying to maintain that with the new ball. I’ve seen that overall, if my areas are right and my line and length are good, scoring runs becomes tough. Yes, I’ve been working on accuracy, working on swing — basically making sure I bowl stump to stump, so that the confidence stays high,” he said.

“Actually, bowling with the new ball in T20s takes courage. Yes, you have to be brave — I’m bowling, the batter will obviously hit me, but I won’t move away from my area. Those who move away from their areas or try defensive options have a very low success rate. The ones who hold their areas end up being good wicket-takers or economical bowlers,” he added.

When asked about death bowling, Hasan said he added a leg-cutter to create an illusion alongside his back-of-the-hand slower and yorker.

“At the death I’m practicing more. For example, what I’m doing now — say I bowl a leg-cutter type delivery or learned it. It’s kind of like leg-spin. Earlier, I had the back-of-the-hand. But I wasn’t getting much success with it anymore. The batters had started reading it. So now, what happens is — the back-of-the-hand ball, after pitching, doesn’t really move left or right, it doesn’t cut like spin. There’s no deviation. So now I’m doing a bit more leg-cutter type, so the ball moves after pitching like spin. So the batter can’t time it. In that case, the chances of wickets are higher,” he explained.

“Now it’s much better. I practiced it and now I’m implementing it in matches. I’ve got good results. I think I’ll continue with it. The yorker is there as well,” he added.

Hasan also had to do it all alone. He was the premium bowler in his side and had to carry the bowling with the new ball and later with the old one. His team won only two matches out of 10 league matches due to inconsistent batting.

But Hasan managed the expectations and performed at his best. “There’s pressure to perform. I don’t know if I’ve been able to hold it fully, but I’m trying this time,” he said.