Nasum coming out of shadows

Nasum Ahmed is slowly coming out of the shadows from other left arm spin bowling options for Bangladesh and proving that he will be not be in the headlines for his off-field antics anymore.

In the 13 Twenty20 International matches he played, Nasum took 13 wickets with an impressive economy rate of 6.44 runs where he took four wickets in a match twice.

Nasum first broke into the national team squad in March 2020, when Shakib Al Hasan was banned but could not get chance to play for the national team.

Although he was not a nationally contracted player at that time, he donated a share from his earnings for being in the national squad for the fund raised by Tamim Iqbal for corona-effected people, and brought him some media attention.

Again, he came into the limelight when he was threatened by teammate Mushfiqur Rahim twice in a match in Bangabandhu T20 Cup.

But now, Nasum will no longer be known for such activities other than the magic of his wrist which puzzled both the Australians and the New Zealanders.

After the series winning match against New Zealand, Nasum told the media that this win gives him some peace of mind as earlier he debuted against the same opposition but had lost the series.

“I made my debut against New Zealand, I got two wickets in that match but we could not win the match. Since then, I was thinking about winning against them and today (Wednesday) finally we beat them at home condition. We won the first two matches and then we lost one but we win again today. Feeling very happy” said the left-arm spinner from Sylhet.

After being judged Man of the Match, he said, “I performed well and the team won, that makes me even happier.”

Much was being talked about the wicket which is favours the spinners, but Nasum said that bowling in the right area was the key for his success.

“I tried to hit the seam, sometimes did some cross-sim deliveries. There was some turn for the bowlers in the wicket but bowling in the right areas was most important. I think I could hit the right areas and that’s why I got successful,” he said.

Nasum gave the Tigers early breakthrough with a wicket-maiden but his most important scalp was definitely Finn Allen who was looking dangerous.

“Riyad Bhai (Mahmudullah) told me that if he (Finn Allen) tries to hit a reverse sweep, you will slow down your pace. When I was about to release the ball, I saw that he changed his position to play the reverse sweep therefore I gave a quicker and due to mistiming I got his wicket”, Nasum told the media.

Nasum recently got the national contract in T20 category, which means the board is also banking on him.