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Bangladesh cricket have found a treasure in Rishad Hossain. The 22-year-old has emerged as a promising leg-spinner for the country where mostly off-spinners have taken over.
Rishad Hossain exhibited his potential in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024 where he finished as the joint fifth-highest wicket taker from 7 games at an economy rate of 7.76. Under the wings of bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed, Rishad has honed his skills for his international career.
The Turning Point For Rishad Hossain
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Most of the credit for the rise of Rishad Hossain goes to the transformation he brought into his bowling style. He started off as a leg-spinner with speed in initial days. He then turned into a more conventional spinner turning the ball a big way. During the 2024 T20 World Cup campaign, Rishad found a turn of 3.6 degrees at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, the most by a spinner at the venue.
“The overall moral of the story on why he did well in the World Cup… is that he understands his process is more important than his outcome and that’s why he is working on his basics more and more now,” Ahmed said.
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Ahmed, the brain behind Rishad Hossain’s upgrade explained how he helped the leggie in turning the ball by working on his wrist position.
“Spinners need to understand that you have to turn the ball. I know Mirpur pitches are very turning pitches and you don’t have to turn the ball there as the ball will naturally spin there. But if you go and play on good pitches you have to turn the ball and understand the variations,” he stated.
“Wrist position is very key and the grip is very key and all those little things when you get the act together you could obviously spin the ball well. Locking the front-arm, not opening up so much, using his lower back: the lower hip up and over is very important, back leg roll is very important and you can only do that when you spend more time on the front leg. So he was spending more time on the front leg and I am sure he needs to improve even more now, it’s just five percent what you have seen so far,” he added.
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Rishad Hossain has proven in mettle in the T20 format. He made is T20 International debut for Bangladesh in March 2023, in a series against Ireland. So far he has taken 29 wickets from 27 matches at an economy of 7.36.
While the Test format remains elusive for him, Hossain has become an asset for the Bangladesh bowling attack in the shortest format of the game. He is the bright spot at present for Bangladesh cricket which otherwise has been in a beleaguered situation.
