'It's not all about pace' - Irfan Pathan has a piece of advice for Mustafizur Rahman

Team India completed another series win over Bangladesh with a memorable come-from-behind 30-run-win at the Vidarbha Cricket Association stadium in Nagpur. Bangladesh missed a rare chance of pulling off a historic series win after an ill-fated collapse courtesy Shivam Dube (3/30) and Deepak Chahar (6/7) as they lost their last eight wickets for a mere 34 runs and also the series in the process by 1/2.

It was a game where fast bowlers from both sides made great use of the slowness of the track on offer. While Al-Amin and Shafiul Islam claimed the early wickets of Indian captain Rohit Sharma and southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, it was Deepak of Chahar of India, who not only claimed a hat-trick but also went on to register the best-ever figures in International T20 cricket- 6/7.

But, perhaps the biggest disappointment of the series was the lack of penetration by the experienced campaigner like Mustafizur Rahman. The Fizz not only conceded a plethora of runs but also went wicketless throughout the series. Mustafizur’s figures at the end of the series read; 0-92 in 9.4 overs.

Trying to bowl fast will not solve Mustafizur’s problem- Irfan Pathan

One of the things that you would have observed during the series was Rahman’s continuous obsession with bowling short-of-a-length rather than pitching it full. And, the Indian fast bowling all-rounder Irfan Pathan also feels that bowling cutters and other variations by bowling on a fullish length will reap the Bangladeshi pacer more rewards than bowling short.

“Personally, I believe that his length just needs to be fuller. If you look at his career, mostly he got his wickets with fuller deliveries because that is where his variation comes in handy. The other thing which is very, very important is that he needs to make sure that he doesn’t fall away.”

“So when his non-bowling-arm is going away from his body, especially when he is delivering the ball; he needs to work on that and make sure it doesn’t fall, that it doesn’t just go towards the batsman. If he can do that, he will have more control over his bowling,” Irfan Pathan said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

The southpaw also added that Mustafizur attempting to increase his pace will not solve his problem. According to Irfan, it’s not even needed.

“He is a left-arm bowler, so if he bowls at 135 km/h with the kind of variation he has got, he will be fine. I don’t think every bowler needs to be able to bowl at 140 to 150 km/h to be successful. If you look at Glenn McGrath, he took over 500 international wickets. He was never a 145 km/h bowler. Wasim Akram was not 150 plus bowler, he had the variations. It’s not all about pace, it’s about bowling in the right areas and having control.”

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