Ever since his debut, Mustafizur Rahman – a name that carries a lot of expectations, mysteries and at the same time injuries – has been a ray of hope for Bangladesh, barren land of quality seamers.
With his unique variations, Fizz burst into the international circuit with a bang becoming the first player to be awarded the Man of the Match in his both Test and ODI debut. He was featured in the ICC ODI Team of the Year 2015 and was later on named as the 12th man in the 'ICC Team of the Tournament' for the 2016 edition of the World Cup T20.
His stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2016 – where he became the Emerging Player of the Tournament, the first and only overseas player in the history to win the award – took him to a different height that provided him with international recognition.
His yorker to Andre Russell that had him fall flat on his face has been an advertisement of the menace of the Fizz. The sideways movement he used to get from his cutters along with his fast 140 click-yorkers made him near unplayable for the batsmen.
The Mustafiz’s ability to bowl outside the line of leg stump and make the ball grip in the surface to have it fizzing past the right hander’s bat at a different pace with adequate bounce to reach the keeper is something none of this generation has witnessed in international cricket.
However, this fairytale beginning did not last long. The shoulder injury he sustained during his dream IPL run forced him to undergo surgery. Since then, for a long time, Fizz had been only a shadow of his former self. He has still continued to be prone to multiple injuries – especially side strain and ankle – both of which have made him miss matches for the national side on several occasions.
Amidst all injuries, Fizz has also shown glimpses of his prime from time to time. He picked up 7 wickets in 5 T20Is in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy, 10 scalps in 5 ODIs in the 2018 Asia Cup, and 20 wickets in 10 games in the 2019 ODI World Cup – highest for Bangladesh and one of the top five wicket-takers in all three competitions.
Although these performances were nothing short of amazing, the high expectations could not be reached as the presence of the miserly economic rate was missing; so were the venom of his cutters and the spite of his yorkers.
Mustafizur’s cutters once again arrived into the discussion in the first phase of IPL 2021 as the noted commentator Alan Wilkins called him 'left-handed Muralitharan.'
Amongst his bags of mysteries, one of the tricks the Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan was famous for was his ability to get the ball bounce off a good length – known as the Top-Spin.
Even though Fizz was not getting the amount of sideways movement he used to get in the early days of his career, he was certainly giving the ball enough revolutions to extract additional bounce of a good length.
Fans started to believe in him once again with the new nickname 'Murali-Fizur' buzzing on social media.
Such expectations of getting the old Fizz back have only increased since then. After returning from IPL, the cutter master had a great run against Sri Lanka at home and in the Zimbabwe tour.
And with conducive Mirpur surfaces, the way Mustafizur has finally got his cutters grip and deviate sideways – the fans can certainly believe that the fizz of the Fizz – maybe not yet in terms of full paced yorkers, but at least in terms of his cutters – is slowly but surely coming back.
The writer is currently studying at the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka (IBA-DU).
