'You need to pay extra attention to him' - Virat Kohli eager to face Mustafizur Rahman

Another home Test series. Another opportunity for the No.1 ranked Test team in the world to continue their unprecedented dominance at home. In the recently concluded Test series, apart from their pristine fast bowling, what really stood out was their batting.

The likes of Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, and Virat Kohli helped themselves to double hundreds and were hardly challenged by any of the South African bowlers. However, if there is one facet where Team India batsmen have been found wanting in the past is quality left-arm fast bowling.

And, captain Virat Kohli realizes that. With the presence of Mustafizur Rahman in Bangladesh set-up, the left-arm seamer could pose a threat to the Indian batting line-up and Virat Kohli has acknowledged the same. Speaking to reporters ahead of the first Test match at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, Kohli said that the batters needed to pay extra attention to the Fizz while also admitting that since they do not have any left-arm pacer in their line-up, it will provide a great challenge to his batsmen.

“He [Mustafizur] is a very good bowler. He has played several matches with the red ball. All the left-handed pacers we usually play are different bowlers from him. You need to pay extra attention to him. Because we don’t play left-arm pacers usually because we don’t have anyone in the team. It will be a challenge but we are looking forward to this challenge,” he said.

Mustafizur hasn’t been in great form lately

That said, Mustafizur himself is going through a lean patch. The left-hander had a forgettable T20I series where he gave away 92 runs across the three games without any wicket and it was his lengths that came under the scanner. Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan had suggested that the Fizz should concentrate towards bowling on a fullish length rather than bowling short-of-a-length.

In the longer format too, the Fizz hadn’t had a great time either. Since the start of January 2018, Mustafizur has managed just eight wickets in five Tests at an average of 43.12 and Bangladesh will hope that the Fizz gets back to his best in the upcoming series.