It has been only a few years since Afif Hossain's career started. He is now a regular member of Bangladesh cricket in white-ball formats. The young sensation is having a good time in ODIs.
Last month, Afif played 93 off 115 balls career-best and a match-winning innings against Afghanistan. When he came to bat, Bangladesh were cornered at 28-5. He and Miraz then made a 174 runs unbroken partnership, which helped Bangladesh successfully chase down the 216-run target set by Afghanistan.
Afif once again proved his worth by playing a knock of 72 runs off 107 balls against South Africa.
The youngster has only played 12 ODI matches, where he has scored 346 runs averaging 43.25 with a strike rate of 91.05.
As he is proving to be a sensible batter who can steady the ship when it is in danger, fans wonder whether he should be moved up at batting order, given No. 5 instead of his usual position at No. 7.
Afif is not a batsman who will strike from the get-go. Rather, he likes to bat with more time. When he spends time on the crease, he settles himself well, can accelerate and carry the momentum.
However, his national team position, i.e. No. 7 requires him to play as a finisher. He doesn't get enough time to settle in struggles to score big.
ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal, however, making it clear that they have no intention to alter positions right now, said to the press, "Afif is really batting well at number seven and now if we promote him to number six then we will have to find another number seven and at that point, there will be talks regarding who will play at number seven."
On the other hand, veteran Mahmudullah Riyad, who holds the No. 6 position, has not been up to the mark there recently. In his last 3 ODI series, he scored only 152 runs at an average of 25.33.
Nevertheless, Tamim still backs Mahmudullah for the position.
"I think Riyad bhai is a very important part of this ODI team. Neither me, the team management nor selectors are thinking about [dropping] him."
"During the last six months to one year, we are always talking around getting a perfect number six and seven who can bat down the order and finish the game for us. I think Afif is the right guy (at No. 7 seven) and he is batting well in that position." Tamim added.
Afif is one of the great prospects for Bangladesh cricket. It's visible that he can be dangerous for any opponent if he can settle in the middle. The sooner the team management realises this, the better.
