Bangladesh left-arm pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman is looking for consistency in bowling and believes he can achieve it by sorting the problem with his run-up. The 24-year-old has had a dip in his bowling fortunes since the rapid start to his career in 2015 which is only down partly to his recent tryst with injuries, reports Cricbuzz.
Mustafizur failed to impress in the three T20Is against India and missed the two-match Test series that followed. Even in the initial phase of Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League he looked far from his best and only began to shine from the Chattogram phase. Mustafizur eventually give an indication of his abilities with a superlative performance for Rangpur Rangers against Sylhet Royals, where he claimed 3-10 and more importantly bowled in the manner that brought him the fame and the nickname Fizz.
"It is not like everything is ok but I am trying. But doing well in only two matches won't help much as I need to perform on consistent basis," Mustafizur said. "For the last couple of days I was having problem with my run-up. Today the best part was that my run-up was smooth and so I could bowl the way I wanted to. Earlier whenever I tried to bowl something different or trying to bowl my yorker my foot was landing outside but now I am trying to sort it out."
The left-armer revealed he has always preferred bowling in the day as opposed to bowling under lights when his cutters are negated. "It is better for me if the game is on day time because my biggest weapon is my cutter and it is effective in dry wicket.
At night it is hard to bowl the cutter because of the wicket [because the ball skids more as it is wet due to dew]," he added.
Mustafizur's recent form comes as relief to the national team management, who were looking at the BBPL as a metric to assess the fast bowler's progress. "We don't have any doubt on his skill but he needed to execute it in the middle and the way he is doing it now it is certainly a very good news for Bangladesh cricket," national selector Habibul Bashar said.