Bangladesh’s continuous quest to blood a legspinner has landed them at the doorstep of Rishad Hossain. The young leg spinner caught the attention during the just-concluded BCB President's Cup, a tournament largely dominated by pace bowlers. His bowling and fielding in the limited opportunities turned heads while his ability to bat down the order makes him a perfect white-ball prospect, Cricbuzz reports.
BCB introduced the ‘Super Sub’ concept in the tournament, one that each team 12 players in their line-up with 11 allowed to bat. It was the latest move towards promoting leg spinners. They included three leggies - Minhajul Abedin, Aminul Islam and Rishad - in the three participating teams and made it mandatory that these leg spinners bowled at least five overs for their respective sides in each games.
Unfortunately, Minhajul was ruled out due to finger injury while Aminul, the only leg spinner in the national radar at present, failed to take part in all the matches due to his quad strain. Rishad, on the other hand, was the most impressive among the trio, bowling 23 overs for his four wickets at an economy of 4.21 in the four games of the league phase and even managed to bat in two of those games.
However, it was not surprising that he was not picked in the final even as a Super Sub by Nazmul XI as they opted to go for fingers spinners instead of keeping faith on the leg spinner. In many ways it was a move in line with Bangladesh’s cricket history.
Rishad, 6-feet 1-inch tall, looks to depend more on his pace variation and operates in the mould of India great Anil Kumble. He deceives the batsmen with his bounce and drift instead of turning the ball a big way.
Given Rishad’s style, Russell Domingo admitted that the management would have to be patient through his developmental phase.
“Rishad has been really impressive. He bowled well in all the games. He has a lot of potential, so he is definitely someone we'd like to have close to us. I've seen him in the A tour in Sri Lanka. He was impressive then,” said Domingo.
“But you have to be patient with him. Leg spin is a very difficult art. You cannot master it within a year or two. We have to pick him against the right teams. Pick him for the right conditions. If you pick a young leg spinner too early he bottles against a quality batsman, you can hurt his confidence immensely. Sure, there are times when you have to front up and do it.
“I think management of his career is very important. He is still young, he has to be patient. But he has shown that he has a lot of potential [as a white ball package]. Still needs to work on a couple of things, but he can be an international cricketer.”
However, chief selector Minhajul Abedin has different plans with the 20-year old and believes he is better suited for the longer version.
“I think he can play in the longer format and we are eyeing to do that. It’s true that he doesn’t turn the ball much nor give too much flight but I am sure that he can learn how to flight the ball in the coming days,” Minhajul told Cricbuzz.
A similar difference of opinion between former head coach Chandika Hathrusingha and national selector Faruk Ahmed had seen leg spinner Jubair Hossain’s career ending in a muddle as he landed in the centre of an ego clash.
