The 19-year old’s first ball in Test cricket landed on a
length and spun straight away and the next five deliveries were very accurate
to keep Ben Duckett at bay. Immediately, the youngster gave everyone the
impression that he was ready for the toughest format of the game. At the end of
day 1 of the first Test at Chittagong, Mehedi was in a joyous mood.
Duckett, Joe Root, Gary Ballance , Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow
and Stuart Broad were his six victims as he became the youngest Bangladeshi to
bag a five-wicket haul on debut. The boy’s hunger for wickets did not diminish
as he came back strongly in the second innings to nail the English captain
Alastair Cook.
He was at it again in the first innings of the second Test
at Mirpur as he made the life of the English top order batsmen difficult and he
ended up bagging six wickets again.
Mehedi Hasan Miraz. He was on the radar of the national team
selectors ever since his brilliant performance during the ICC Under 19 World
Cup this year in Bangladesh. He was adjudged the Man of the Tournament and the
critics were optimistic about his success at the highest level.
What makes Mehedi Hasan so deadly
against England?
Miraz
is an orthodox spin bowler with a round arm action.
His
smartness lies in gripping the ball. Normally, a finger spinner would spread his
first and second fingers onto the seam of the ball, ensuring that the main
pressure is exerted on the first finger. But Miraz tends to deceive the batsmen
with his grip. He shows the batsmen that he is gripping the ball with standard
spread-fingers but instead, he holds the ball so that the forefingers run down
the seam. His thumb adopts a sideways position.
So,
whenever he releases the ball, it comes off the ends of the fingers. The
batsmen expect the ball to turn into them, but instead, it turns away, which
opens the opportunity for a caught behind or at slip or even a stumping.
Moreover,
with the same grip, he is capable of imparting downward rip on the ball by
cocking his wrist as if he is opening a doorknob in the direction of the spin
and flicking it with his first finger.
Because
of his round-arm action, instead of locking the elbow as a fast bowler would,
Miraz maintains a slight angle bowling with a fractionally bent arm which
allows him to get beside and under the ball easily. This allows his shoulder
muscles to become more involved in imparting force on the ball.
Both
at Chittagong and Mirpur, Miraz was seen to generate turn and bounce at pace.
This was because the involvement of his shoulder muscles helped achieve such.
At
such a young age, Miraz has the brain to read that length which will create
problems for the opposition batsmen and seems to be at home in creating
difficult angles while bowling round the wicket. Again, he has the courage to
experiment his lengths and set the batsmen up.
On
day 1, Miraz dished out quite a number of loose balls to Alastair Cook which
were dispatched towards the boundary. Miraz pitched those balls either short or
too full. In his next over, Cook was flummoxed by a beauty from Miraz which
zipped on at pace to hit his back leg.
Cook
was set up nicely and was not prepared for such a ripper of a delivery.
How do you counter it?
If
a batsman needs to master Miraz’s bowling, he needs to disturb his length by
using his feet more, come down the track and attack and above all, he needs to
watch his grip and position of the seam carefully.
But
all I can say is, Miraz is capable of bouncing back despite getting hit as he
is blessed with a positive and fighting mindset. His success is not a flash in
the pan, but it has been more due to his natural talent, skill, ability to
learn quickly and the hunger for success.
It
has been an encouraging start for the youngster and this bodes well for the
future.
Note:
This article was published at Sportskeeda on 29/10/2016 What makes Mehedi Hasan so deadly against England?
Thank
You
Faisal
Caesar
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