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Old November 16, 2007, 12:12 PM
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Sohel Sohel is offline
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Better questions to ask, IMHO, would’ve been: -

1. What were Syed Rasel’s technical limitations when he started off?

2. How has he improved?

3. What are the issues he faces now?

The aforementioned questioned would require a bit of good faith I have sadly come not to expect from certain poster(s). Responding to bad faith with reason is akin to talking to a sentient wall that doesn’t get it simply because it refuses to, but I will try to give my take on the matter. But before that, a thing or two about “swinging it both ways”: if the phrase refers to Rasel’s ability to swing the ball A BIT at will, and still a bit better than that under the right conditions - meaning a combination of a moisture in the air and the right crosswind – yes he can certainly swing it both ways a bit like all medium pacers.

If on the other hand, refers to REALLY swinging it both ways like Wasim Akram, then I must remind everyone that Rasel simply does not have the pace to do that. During this NCL, we have seen Mashrafe, Dollar and Sajidul do it significantly better, with youngster Rubel Hossain generating the most dramatic swings of them all. In fact Rubel’s reverse swing is indeed something to see. The young man is REMARKABLY hostile, sprints down his run up with aggression, and bends his back harder than any Bangladeshi pacer I’ve seen. I pray that he will continue to improve, steady his ship, become more physically and mentally fit to bowl longer over with discipline and become our own Fidel Edwards with that high sling action of his. Now to the responses.

1. When Rasel started out, his bowling action was not nearly ‘tall’ enough to generate any extra bounce at all in wickets where Mashrafe generated quite a bit of bounce. He was also bowled out by his Captain 10 straight, not only because of HaBa being Captain Blasé, but also because he tended to lose his rhythm after the 5th over onwards, and the gradually the tightness of his line and length as a consequence. He also did not ‘script’ his bowling well by manipulating not only the pace and torsion of his delivery, but also by bowling from the same angle. He started off an effective ODI bowler whose effectiveness started to wane as the end of his quota neared.

2. By the time the ODI World Cup rolled around, we saw a Rasel who is not only bowling ‘taller’ and generating more bounce, but also a SMARTER Rasel who used slight angular variations to generate more movement off the seam as well as a bit of extra zing to his swings. I’d say he also picked up a bit more pace and started to use the subsequently better swing very effectively in his ‘script’ to dupe opposition batsmen into a false sense of security, then surprise them into both forced and unforced errors. His rhythm also improved quite a bit, and became more sustainable over the 10-over quota.

T20WC was a tournament made for Rasel who became, IMHO, one of the best, most disciplined and lethal 4 over bowlers in the tournament. In every delivery he gave 110% of his mind, body and soul, and it showed much to our pride and pleasure.

By the time the NCL rolled around, we SAW and CONTINUE TO SEE an ever smarter Rasel who is struggling less bowling longer spells consistently. He went from 5 to 7 to 10 overs of steady and sustainable economical bowling with regular surprise deliveries, comebacks and therefore wickets. Now he can bowl bang on target from his ball 1 to ball 60. Bowling more than 10 continue to be a problem with him.

3. Rasel continues to have problems mentally and physically with longer spells as aptly demonstrated by an unusual number of extras he tends to concede as the day goes on. Unlike Shahadat Hossain, Suman Saha, Sajidul Islam and from what I hear Shubhashish Roy who take their time to find their rhythm and line and get better as the game rolls on, Rasel tends to lose his grip on both his discipline and his scripting as he bowls more and more overs. The more physically tired he gets, the more uncharacteristically erratic he becomes.

Perhaps because of Mashrafe’s absence during the last Khulna match, I heard that he was trying to bend his back trying to generate extra pace and ended up conceding more uncharacteristic extras, and also losing whatever extra movement he was getting off the seam. I have no doubts that he will pick up a bit more pace with all subsequent extras over time once he learns to consistently torque his upper body while bowling tall, rather than losing what he has by bending his back. I also think that as his physical and mental stamina continue to improve, so will his scripting. I expect him to be as essential to our test side as he is to our shorter version sides a lot sooner than we anticipate. Rasel’s biggest strength has always been a combination of his masterful use of what he has, his intelligence, and the ability to learn quicker than most, and I DON’T expect that to change.

Last word on the bad faith of soothsayers: -

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