Habibul Bashar wants 'predictable' Mustafizur Rahman to reinvent himself

Mustafizur Rahman is having a tough time in international cricket after performing well for the Bangladesh team in the ICC World Cup 2019. Currently, part of the Rangpur Rangers team in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League 2019-20, Mustafizur’s performance has seen a huge dip of form over the last few months, which was highlighted by his outing against India in the T20I series.

The left-arm pacer ended the T20I series in India without any wicket to his name in any of the three matches giving away 92 runs from 9.4 overs with an economy rate of 9.51. Incidentally, this was not a case of one-off miss fortunes for the bowler, in the previous 10 T20I matches, he’s picked only nine wickets in 33.4 overs, conceding 315 runs at an economy rate of 9.35. This has become a headache for the Bangladesh team management and selector Habibul Bashar has said he needs to reinvent himself.

We are missing the Mustafizur Rahman for the past one year, says Habibul Bashar

Bangladesh selector Habibul Bashar has shown concern over the form of their strike bowler, saying that the bowler is getting too predictable and needs to reinvent himself. “Slower deliveries are still there while his pace is also increasing. Now he is bowling at a good pace. (But) yorker is missing. He is becoming predictable. This is my concern. Batsmen are able to predict what he is going to do,” Bashar was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.com.

This problem was highlighted in the opening match of the Bangladesh Premier League between Rangpur Riders and Cumilla Warriors. The Warriors’ skipper Dasun Shanaka dominated the left-arm pacer and ended up hitting him for four sixes in an over to put his side in a position of advantage.

“It is a concern because we are missing the Mustafizur (we know) for the past one year. There is no yorker in Mustafizur’s bowling while he had wonderful yorkers before. I think he needs to rethink his bowling. It’s high time for him to go for plan B, since for batsmen he is now easy to read,” Bashar added.

The national selector also pointed out that though Mustafizur was the highest wicket-taker for the Tigers in the last one year, but has been on the expensive side. He is still picking fifers for the team and is considered to be special, but him leaking runs posed pressure for the other bowlers. He said its high time for the bowler to prove that he is still special.

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