The fading 'Fizz' of Mustafizur Rahman - Another shooting star in the glittering night sky

“With our backs to the wall, darkness will fall, we never quite thought we could lose it all.”

The big Caribbean with the figure gigantic enough to intimidate any grownup was lying on the ground. Indeed, it was the giant who looked like a child now. The middle stump had been knocked over, and one of the world’s best T20 players looked back at the destruction, stupefied.

Till then, entire Bangladesh supported Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), because their pride, Shakib Al Hasan played for them. But in 2016, half of Bangladesh started inclining towards the orange army. A new bowling sensation has emerged, and Bangladesh thought him of him as their future commander.

The whole of Bangladesh rejoiced the wicket, and a certain incident flashed from my memory. I remembered how David Warner once said that their video analyst watched and re-watched every shot of the then hot prospect Glenn Maxwell, and eventually came up with his weaknesses. “If you can come up with weaknesses of a batsman who has a wide repertoire of shots, it will not be tough to find the weaknesses of a bowler who relies only on his stock deliveries,” I thought.

A couple of years later, Kagiso Rabada is dominating the world circuit. But before there was a Rabada, there was a Fizz who showed his spark, who showed that he can match-up with the best in the world, and can look eye-to-eye with some of the fiercest batters in world cricket, unperturbed. When Rabada is now dominating the world circuit, Bangladesh’s very own ‘Fizz’ is conceding over 9 runs per over.

The fall

If we go back to IPL 2016, we can picture a young and lanky pacer from Bangladesh, who has just broken into the majors and is hitting home runs straightaway. In 16 matches, the Satkhira-born pacer took 17 wickets. If that doesn’t impress you, his economy rate will, which was less than 7. Interestingly, Sunrisers Hyderabad had Trent Boult amongst their ranks, a seasoned campaigner, but they chose Mustafizur over him. Every time Warner needed a breakthrough, he called for his most prized asset, the man with the golden arm. Just like a king’s minister, he obliged.

If we see Mustafizur’s T20I career stats, we will be amazed by his numbers. He has played 23 matches and got 34 wickets. But don’t let those numbers fool you. In his first 15 matches, the Fizz took 23 wickets. The economy rate remained his forte, as he conceded 6 runs per over, something that is bound to make the miser feel ashamed of himself.

On the contrary, his numbers in the past one year have been something that the Bangladeshis won’t like to talk about. In his last 8 T20Is, Fizz has picked up 11 wickets. Doesn’t ring any bells? It shouldn’t, but what is bound to raise quite a few eyebrows, is his economy rate, something which was once the USP of Fizz. In those games, Fizz has conceded 272 runs in 29 overs, giving away over 9 runs per over.

The postmortem

A player who once epitomized being economical is now giving away runs as if he has joined some NGO. The parsimonious king has become the leader of All Spendthrift Bowlers’ Association. We don’t want to know whether he is enjoying his time there alongside Ashok Dinda and Ishant Sharma, but what we do want to know is the cause of his sudden change.

The video analysts don’t earn their money for playing Spades on a computer, and this takes me back to the thought I had in 2016. Rahman mainly relies on his slower ones and cutters. Batters will be stupefied on the first day, baffled on the second, beaten on the third, but then they will go to the wise brains gazing at their computer screens. They will come out on the fourth day, and this time they’ll have the upper-hand.

But Fizz is not the only one whose venom isn’t fatal anymore. The Bangladeshi left-armer reminds me of a certain Ajantha Mendis, who just like Fizz, used to terrorize batters. After playing 57 Tests for India, 31-year-old Ravichandran Ashwin still feels there is a need to change. He takes great pride in announcing that after a lot of hard work, he has finally mastered the art of leg spin. One of India’s best off-spinners had to learn leg-spin because that is the need of the hour.

Changing with time and bringing new varieties and flavours to your skill is the key to hold on the success. Many get fame overnight, many become heroes after one match, but very few can hold onto it. Bangladeshis might tend to believe that Fizz’s injury brought his downfall, but the moment someone decides to become a pacer, he makes lifelong friendship with injuries. Ashish Nehra proudly says that his tongue is probably the only part of his body which hasn’t been operated.

Mustafizur might have lost his sheen, but he is still a part of the Bangladesh team. The locals want their old Fizz back, and being a fan of the game, so do I. We all want him to a be a permanent star in the glittering night sky of talented bowlers, and not be a shooting star that is about to fall down. Whatever be the reason for his downfall, he needs to pick himself up, gather courage and strike back with double the venom, because that’s what champions do.

“We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.” – Edmund Burke.

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