Potential, thy name is Rajib

[al Furqaan]

Just a little statistical thread here.

Shahadat Hossain failed to impress on debut. In fact, thats an understatement given his figures of 12-0-101-0 with 11 no balls thrown in to add insult to injury.

But his development has been astonishing. At times he works up decent pace - the fastest I've seen him throw one down was a yorker to Dinesh Karthick timed at 88.7 mph - but his lack of express pace means that his success has come from cunning and guile. Intellect is a far more potent weapon than raw pace, no matter how quick you are. History will show that Kapil Dev took more than twice the number of wickets than did Shoaib Akhtar.

Shahadat Hossain also has bad luck. He plays for a team which generally only allows him the opportunity to bowl just once per match. On the rare occaision he gets a 2nd bowl, the target to chase is more than likely small enough to limit him to a single short spell.

Yet, Shahadat Hossain has an impressive career average of exactly 2 wickets per innings (42 scalps in 21 appearances). Some other notable names with their wickets/innings stats:

Muralitharan - 3.54
Warne - 2.59

Now onto the fast bowlers:

McGrath - 2.32
Walsh - 2.14
Dev - 1.91
Akram - 2.29
Younis - 2.42
Vaas - 1.88
Lee - 2.16
Srinath - 1.95

To contemporary young quicks:

Sharma - 1.57
Gul - 2.23
Asif - 2.43
Malinga - 1.65
Steyn - 2.78
Edwards - 1.64

To teammates:

Mortaza - 1.65
Rasel - 1.5
Baisya - 1.24

We must bear in mind Shahadat does not have the bowling opportunities that others have. Should he get those, and remain free of injuries, we might see him become the first Bangladeshi to make a list of the greatest wicket takers in Test cricket history, inshAllah.

[cricman]

You must really love giving the Ultimate Kufa to our Brightest prospects, He'll have a horrible series in Australia even tho those are ODI's I just know where to point the finger

Mohammed Rafique: 100 WIckets/ 48 Innings (skewed due to the fact some 2nd innings were target of 25) = 2.08

[al Furqaan]

i don't believe in kufa or jinxes...not in islam.

your destiny is already written.

watch tamim and rajib keep the faith.

[al Furqaan]

btw, on that rafique stat...spinners seem to have higher ratios...rafiques should easily be 2.5 or higher.

[Rabz]

It is indeed unfortunate for our bowlers that they usually dont get the chance to bowl twice in a test match, usually. To add salt, in our test history so far, we've managed to declare first innings only once in WI back in '04.

The rise of Rajib has been a consistant one and its realy good to see he is applying himself with the experience that he has managed to get so far.

Him and Mash should front our pace attack for years to come and hope it only gets better from here on. Only if we had a decent 3rd pacer and Mash back in form, it would also help Rajib to grow as a bowler.

[Mahmood]

When the bowlers give scores like 600/4, there is no point calling them unfortunate for only being able to bowl once. The day our bowlers can book opponents under 300, and still will only get to bowl one inning, that day I will admit they are unfortunate.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by Mahmood
When the bowlers give scores like 600/4, there is no point calling them unfortunate for only being able to bowl once. The day our bowlers can book opponents under 300, and still will only get to bowl one inning, that day I will admit they are unfortunate.

Hear hear

[Pundit]

furqaan - sometimes I wonder why we fear of our pacers' health. They get to bowl only one. Though it is true, since the opposition racks up a Ka-zillion runs, they do send down a greater number of overs.

That's why strike rate rulz.

[sunniath]

Originally Posted by Pundit
furqaan - sometimes I wonder why we fear of our pacers' health. They get to bowl only one. Though it is true, since the opposition racks up a Ka-zillion runs, they do send down a greater number of overs.

That's why strike rate rulz.

vitamin er obhab.

[Beamer]

He has obvious potential in the longer version of the game. His display of reverse swing against SA with the old ball was one of the more pleasant sight for me related to BD cricket. He does need to be more disciplined, work on the team plan for specific batsman, and the captain must lend him a helping hand by using him properly ( not over extend ) with the slips holding on to any offerings induced by Rajib. I think he needs to work on his lower body. He is too skinny waist down.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Pundit

That's why strike rate rulz.

very few the world over can match rajib's SR of 52. by comparison,

Murali - 54.1
Warne - 57.4

McGrath - 51.9
Lee - 51.0
Vaas - 65.2
Srinath - 64.0
Harmison - 58.4
Akram - 54.6
Younis - 43.4

Sharma - 63.1
Malinga - 52.4

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
very few the world over can match rajib's SR of 52. by comparison,

Now that's impressive.

[Rifat]

what about ajnatha mendis who has a strike rate of 33.7

trust me,Rajib's strike rate could easily drop as his career goes on...

i am very hopeful about him as he continues to progress in all formats of the game, remember when Bangldesh defeated New Zealand in a T20 game? he had impressive figures...

if he could balance his bowling style to 1 yorker, 1 reverse swing, 1 bouncer, 1 off cutter, 1 in-swing and other ball just outside the off stump every over, then lo! behold!we have a brett lee in our own backyard... i am not kidding..

[jahidus200]

i think he is more faster than masraffie mortaza. he could bowl averagely 84 to 85 miles per ball . but i am tellling you that guys sometimes he changed his bowling action and that where is his problem . he need to bowl his same action as when he was doing aginst zimbabwe the hatrik . this is his best bowling action to bowl more faster and struggle the batsman . because i see him since he is playing cricket . i beleave that he is our one of best bowler in the team.

[al Furqaan]

of course, i don't expect him to maintain an 52 strike rate for very long even if we play all matches against zimbabwe. but i expect him to keep it under 60, and i think he can do it.

[Gowza]

when some better back up comes through (rubel, subashis etc) then rajib's bowling along with the other bowlers in the team should be more effective pretty much mainly due to the batsmen being under pressure more often than they are now. i mean atm mash and rajib are decent test bowlers, no one else really puts enough pressure on the batsmen to help too much.

[Dhruvo]

That is true,Shahadat does really have good potential,I am waiting when he reaches his peak and plays at his best,hopefully he will in just a matter of few more years.

[bujhee kom]

may Allah bless our shahadat hossain rajib and keep him healthy and sharp as a great cricketer!
may Allah bless our rajib so he becomes one of the deadliest and successfulmost fast bowlers in world cricket!
may Allah let me eat mishti many many days due to rajib's 'biddhongshi jhoro bowling' performance!

[crikfreak]

Originally Posted by Mahmood
When the bowlers give scores like 600/4, there is no point calling them unfortunate for only being able to bowl once. The day our bowlers can book opponents under 300, and still will only get to bowl one inning, that day I will admit they are unfortunate.

i agree..

[habfreak]

despite the unneeded religious references in this thread (It's a secular board.lets keep it that way)..I LIKE THIS THREAD!
one more point I'd add to the already very well formulated post is that; Shahadat has been in and out of the team consistantly, disrupting his rhythm..therefore hurting his confidence and slowing down his development.
Fast bowling is a lot about heart and confidence...it doesnt help when a young speedstar is running down his runup thinking about how to keep his place in the team; and not abt how to intimidate the batsman. How are you supposed to intimidate when your own job is on the bubble? Shahadat is a wicket taking bowler...management has to let him do his experimenting without fearing for his job.
His best performances have come when he played on a consistant basis...I'm too lazy to dig up the actual stats...but whenver he has played 3 or 4 games is a row..he ahs gotten better with every game.

[al Furqaan]

good points habfreak.

to be honest, shahadat has been considered a test specialist. i think we have to accept that nowadays at least, its gonna be damn hard to find a fast bowler who can play in 100+ tests and 300 ODIs effectively. its too much to ask. consequently, i'm OK with rajib just bowling in tests. all our test matches are meaningful and for someone to succeed there, its the highest accolade. so far rajib has shown potential in ODIs, but not nearly enough. if he works on his game and improves, great. but i would be completely satisfied if rajib ends his career with just 50 ODI wickets so long as he threatens 300 test wickets (a lot of that has to do with our batting also), manages to crank up 140 kph regularily, and gets a few batsmen addicted to ice packs.

btw, the religious utterances are part and parcel of muslim vernacular be it arabic, hausa, urdu, or bengali. its not an attempt to shove islam down others throats.

peace.

[habfreak]

I"ll go as far as to say that Shahadat is our best bowler im tests.
When it comes to ODIs; we have to set our priorities straight. Are we looking to win once every 6 months and settle for "Resectable defeats" the rest of the times? Then We should get more of those run checking mediocore, good for nothing all rounders (Reza, kapali, Riyad).
However,If we are looking to win on a regular basis we have to rolll the dice on players like Shahadat and Junaid...who on their best days are capable of winning us the match single handedly. Problem is they are not developed fully yet and only way to develop them would be through exposure.
Zunaid will get a lot of 15 and 20s before he starts scoring on a regular basis. Shahdat will often end up with figured like 8-0-80-1...but if our selectors can manage to keep their faith and set theor priorities straight on what kind of players we want to invest in for the long term...players like Zunayed, Shahadat, mushi and Raqib are our future..not Rasel, Reza, Riyad or Kapali.
I'm tired of the mediocrity...slow left armers and useless allrounders...they will never win us anything...I mean how many all rounders did West Indies used to have when they ruled the world? They had 4 batsmen who couldnt bowl, 4 bowlers who batted like bangladeshi Tokais...and still they won..cuz everyone knew their jobs within the team.

[cricket_king]

Originally Posted by habfreak
I"ll go as far as to say that Shahadat is our best bowler im tests.
When it comes to ODIs; we have to set our priorities straight. Are we looking to win once every 6 months and settle for "Resectable defeats" the rest of the times? Then We should get more of those run checking mediocore, good for nothing all rounders (Reza, kapali, Riyad).
However,If we are looking to win on a regular basis we have to rolll the dice on players like Shahadat and Junaid...who on their best days are capable of winning us the match single handedly. Problem is they are not developed fully yet and only way to develop them would be through exposure.
Zunaid will get a lot of 15 and 20s before he starts scoring on a regular basis. Shahdat will often end up with figured like 8-0-80-1...but if our selectors can manage to keep their faith and set theor priorities straight on what kind of players we want to invest in for the long term...players like Zunayed, Shahadat, mushi and Raqib are our future..not Rasel, Reza, Riyad or Kapali.
I'm tired of the mediocrity...slow left armers and useless allrounders...they will never win us anything...I mean how many all rounders did West Indies used to have when they ruled the world? They had 4 batsmen who couldnt bowl, 4 bowlers who batted like bangladeshi Tokais...and still they won..cuz everyone knew their jobs within the team.

That's all well and good, but the thing is we don't really have the time to keep trying guys like Zunaid when they're scoring ducks and getting out the same way every game. The cricket world is already pretty damn critical of us....we're having to constantly change players because no one is performing well enough. Perhaps some of them really can destroy sides single-handed, but we still haven't seen it from any of them.

[Gowza]

rasel certainly isn't useless and riyad, kapali and reza all have a good amount of potential tbh. riyad has good potential with both bat and ball, kapali is potentially a match winning batsman and a handy bowler and reza if he can work on his batting would be a good one-day allrounder (he bowls well enough to be first change at least until bowlers like shahadat, rubel, subashis, robin are ready and he can be a really handy late order batsman). obviously they all still have work to do to get to where they need to be, but that's the same for everyone else in the BD national team and all the potential national team prospects.

[habfreak]

why don't we have time? what are we winning with our slow left armers and opening bowlers that require the keeper to stand up to the wicket anyway? Sure Zunaid and Shahadat will make us look bad on a few occasions, but I personally would much rather invest our hard to come by international exposure on them; than some mediocore player that will never win us anything.