For Mustafizur Rahman, a lot has changed in the past two years as the management of the national team has become increasingly concerned about the left arm pacer’s deteriorating condition.
Mustafizur has taken the most wickets for Bangladesh in ODIs and T20Is since his debut in 2015, with 127 and 84 wickets taken, respectively. However, over the past two years, his form has significantly declined.
Since January 2022, Taskin Ahmed has been the highest-scoring player in T20Is with 33 wickets, while Mehedy Hasan is at the top of the ODI records with 51 wickets. Over this period, Mustafizur has taken 37 and 21 wickets in the two forms, respectively.
Since 2022, Bangladeshi pacers Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed have taken the most wickets in ODIs and T20Is, respectively. Mustafizur’s place in the national squad was frequently questioned during this phase due to his inability to generate magic in the middle of the pitch.
This subject has been raised several times during their international matches since Hathurusingha revealed that Fizz is no longer a lock to start the home series against Ireland. That, understandably, cast doubt on the cutter-master’s skill, and the fact that he was in and out of the white-ball game while playing XIs further confirmed that, in contrast to earlier times, his position was not assured.
Given his recent record, it was somewhat surprising that the Chennai Super Kings included Mustafizur in their roster for the present Indian Premier League. It was thought that he was chosen as Matheesha Pathirana’s backup.
Because of Pathirana’s injury, Mustafizur took advantage of his debut for CSK by taking four wickets. He appeared to be fully aware that this was his or her chance.
Allan Donald, the former Bangladesh speed bowling coach who worked closely with Fizz till the most recent World Cup before resigning from the position, was unsurprised by Fizz’s performance in the IPL.
“Mustafizur seems to have gained confidence in his stock delivery after seeing him. I’m not just talking about his amazing variety; I’m also talking about his delivery pace. Mustafizur seems to have a more impressive rhythm than before. If I had to start at the beginning, I would say that his rhythm is excellent when the ball comes out and it has pace. He also appears to be very well-balanced, and one thing that really sticks out is that he appears to be enjoying his cricket. Donald said to Cricbuzz on Wednesday, “He has shape on the ball, and that’s one thing he was trying to adapt back in Bangladesh when everyone was asking what is going on (with him).”
“He lacked confidence in his stock delivery, which involved swinging the ball away from left-handers and toward right-handers. the self-assurance to genuinely swing the ball freely back into the left-handers and away from right-handers. That’s the first thing I look for, and I believe a lot of people automatically go for a slower ball or off-pace deliveries because they are unsure of how to throw the ball and when it should be pitched, if you see what I mean,” he added.
During his best bowling moments, Mustafizur swings the ball late and with good pace. The first indication that Fizz was looking a lot better and that slower ball was just, you know, as I said, he is just so in control of it right now and he is bowling beautifully, was when he began to show in the World Cup, albeit not consistently. That was definitely happening at training. I believe it’s nice to see that he is currently CSK’s banker and that he appears happy and confident,” he remarked.
“The issue I see with specially guys who are very good at T20 bowling and specially what Fizz is doing is taking pace of the ball and it’s been unpredictable and more than 70 percent of 75 percent of time he is going to mix it up they tend to lose their stock deliveries so it happens with few bowlers it happens with Broad( Stuart) back in the days and few others I have seen before and just used to seeing taking the pace off consistently and so what that happens is you don’t pay attention to how your stock deliveries comes out but what I think when I was there I would focus on a little bit more when he practices that he is very hard on his stock ball on pace ball,” he stated.
“I think he can close his eyes and bowl off-pace deliveries in his sleep and that’s how tuned he is and that’s how his muscle memory works and that’s how your brain tells you every single time that’s how you operate in the middle and I would be very hard on him practising his swinging the ball consistently so that he doesn’t…. he had a wrist issue and a release issue we picked up in New Zealand and while ago his slower ball was coming out of the side of the hand and not front of the hand and that’s how far you can go in getting it wrong and so I think I would be just more mindful of the fact to remind him for the World Cup in USA and West Indies that he should concentrate more on his on-pace ball during training just to make sure that late swing doesn’t go and you are not just tuned mentally just to bowl cutters and slower balls and whatever and so if you know what I mean,” said.
