Mustafizur Rahman (born 6 September 1995) is a Bangladeshi international cricketer. He is specialized as a left-arm fast bowler. He has taken the most wickets (13) in a debut One Day International series. He is the first player to win the ‘Man of the Match’ award on both Test as well as ODI debuts.
Rahman made his international cricket debut against Pakistan in the Twenty20 format in April 2015. Later that year, he played his first One Day International and Test matches against India and South Africa, respectively.
Before his international career, Rahman played in the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He also represented Dhaka Dynamites in the 2015 Bangladesh Premier League and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2016 Indian Premier League.
Mustafizur Rahman grew up in the small town of Shatkhira in Khulna Division, Bangladesh.[2] He is the youngest of Abul Qasem Gazi and Mahmuda Khatun's six children.[3] His father is an enthusiastic fan of cricket.[4] Rahman's interest in cricket rose when he started practicing the game 40 kilometers away from home every morning, with his brother Mokhlesur Rahman. This affected his education as he occasionally skipped study to play cricket.[3]
Prior to discovering his bowling talents, Rahman played as a batsman with a tennis ball.[5] According to him, he took inspiration from Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir, who is his idol.[6]
In 2012, Rahman came to the capital Dhaka to try out for a fast-bowlers camp.[4] Prior to that, scouters first encountered him in an Under-17 tournament in his hometown.[5] He was admitted to the Bangladesh Cricket Board's foundation of fast bowling. Soon he was selected to the Bangladesh Under-19 side for the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in UAE, where he took a total of eight wickets.[7]
Rahman started both his First-class cricket and List-A cricket from 2014, representing Khulna Division and Abahani Limited, respectively.[8] He was picked for Bangladesh A's tour of West Indies.[2][5]
Mustafizur began his international career in a twenty overs match against Pakistan on 24 April 2015, where he took the wickets of Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez, two veteran Pakistani batsmen.
In June, India toured Bangladesh for one Test and three One Day Internationals. Rahman was picked in the ODI squad. In his first match of the series, Rahman gave signs of his potential against the strong Indian batting line-up by taking a five-wicket haul off 9.2 overs in the first match.[10][11] Bangladesh won the match and Rahman became the tenth bowler in the history of ODIs to take five wickets on debut.[12][13] In the second ODI, Rahman took another six wickets. This helped him to earn the record of most wickets of any bowler after two ODIs, surpassing the record previously held by Zimbabwe's Brian Vitori. He completed the last ODI with 2 wickets and made history by taking 13 wickets in a three-match ODI series.
The following month, Rahman took 5 wickets in three ODIs to help Bangladesh win the series against South Africa by 2–1. He made his Test debut in the same series versus South Africa where he picked up 4 wickets.
Injury problems
In the month of November, Bangladesh hosted Zimbabwe for three ODIs and two T20s. Rahman played a salient role in the ODI matches, taking a total of 8 wickets. He captured his third five-wicket haul in the last game.[26] He could not contribute much in the T20 series, though he bowled economically, which resulted both sides sharing a win. The next year in January, Bangladesh again played with Zimbabwe in four T20s. Rahman played in the first two matches, which they won. While bowling in the second T20I against Zimbabwe in January 2016, Mustafizur injured his shoulder. Following that, he was dropped from the squad for the first time since debut.
During the Asia Cup held in the next month, he was again sidelined from the team due to his side strain, playing only the first three games. He was able to play against Australia, India and New Zealand in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 held in India in March. In the three matches he played, he took nine wickets including a five wicket haul against New Zealand. Rahman was again unable to play all matches when Bangladesh toured New Zealand during December 2016 and January 2017. He played his first Test match since August 2015 against Sri Lanka at Galle in March 2017, taking eight wickets in the series.