A rare Tigers' leg-spinner shows his worth in a big stage

June 09, 2024 00:00:00

Taskin Ahmed (2 wickets), Mustafizur Rahman (3 wickets) and Rishad Hossain (3 wickets) starred with the ball as Bangladesh clinched a convincing victory over Sri Lanka in their opening T20 World Cup 2024 match at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, USA on Saturday. — Photo ICC

The inclusion of young leg-spinner Rishad Hossain in the Bangladesh T20 World Cup squad wasn't surprising considering the way he performed for the national team during the last couple of bilateral series.

However, there were concerns whether the leggie could handle the pressures of a big tournament like the World Cup. And he responded with a match-winning performance against Sri Lanka as he finally arrived at the big stage, reports Cricbuzz.

Sri Lanka were 100/3 at the end of the 14th over when skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto gave Rishad his third over. The leg-spinner removed Charith Asalanka and Wanindu Hasaranga with successive deliveries to bring back Bangladesh into the game and in the following over he put the final nail in Sri Lanka's batting order by removing Dhananjaya de Silva.

Rishad displayed courage to entice the batters to attack him and had the last laugh on the back of his turn, 3.6 degree to be precise - the most by a spinner in this World Cup at Grand Prairie Stadium, leaving behind Netherlands' Tim Pringle (3.2), Pakistan's Shadab Khan (3.0) and USA's Harmeet Singh (2.4).

The 21-year old, who bagged the player of the match award for his figures of 3 for 22 against Sri Lanka, was fearlessness in his approach against both left-handers and right-handers. "When I go to bowl I don't watching anything like right-handed or left-handed. When I go to bowl I have to do what the team wants from me. I have no problem with right-handed or left-handed," Rishad said.

"I don't bowl out of fear. I have always tried to get wickets for the team whenever I come to bowl. If I get a wicket, it will change the course of the game," he said, expressing his joy over earning the player of the match award on his World Cup debut.

"Everything is fine, feeling good actually. I become man of the match in the first world cup match. Everything is looking good together. I tried to understand what could happen on the wicket after delivering two or four balls and the rest is upon God's will."