Aussies mesmerised by Mustafiz

Bangladesh left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman has become a riddle for the visiting Australian cricket team as they are yet to find an answer to his mesmerising deliveries.

Mustafiz’s five wickets in the first two twenty20 internationals have been crucial to Bangladesh taking a 2-0 lead over the Aussies in the five-match series. And even after two matches, the Aussies are finding it very difficult to deal with his deceptive wristwork.

Ashton Agar, the left-arm spinner who has played more than 50 international matches for Australia and over hundreds of T20s, was the latest to admit that Mustafiz’s bowling is inexplicable.

“He is a difficult customer. He is really good. His ability to bowl that slower ball, if you watch it in slow motion, pretty much with his wrist and fingers, is incredible. Incredible skill, amazing revolution,” said Agar.

“It’s a great slower ball because it’s not too slow and it’s like a revolution. It keeps low, might get a little bite off the surface, might spin a lot or might not. It is super variable, and he is bowling the majority of his balls as slower balls,” he said in the virtual Press-Conference held on Thursday morning.

Australia is now 2-0 down in the five-match series that means one more slip up will cost them the series. Agar thinks that the batsmen must bring some changes to their approach to bounce back.

“Taking the game as deep as possible and going into the back end of the innings with wickets in hand, I think that’s the best way to go about it. Really tough wicket to take a lot of risks, but if we get off to a decent start in the powerplay, that certainly helps.

“Things are not looking good in the power play. Alex Carey is a couple of boundaries away, Mitch Marsh is a couple of boundaries (away) as well,” said Agar, who scored seven and zero in both the innings he played so far in this series.

To do so, Agar thinks that the batsmen should change their approach towards the game developed through the Australian way of playing.

“We like the ball coming onto the bat. On this wicket, that is really difficult. I think we need to get our batting performances together,” Agar told the media.