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.
Previously, Moises Henriques, who appeared in the post-match press conference after the second T20I, also expressed his bewilderment regarding Mustafiz.
"Mustafiz tonight showed how quickly he adapts – I think he bowled 23 or 24 slower balls and did not bowl any more balls with pace on," said the Aussie all-rounder.
Henriques has played 60 matches in the Indian Premier League where he played with and against Mustafiz, but he never found 'the Fizz' doing something like this.
"He doesn't do that when he plays in the IPL. It's probably half-half. He summed up the conditions really well tonight. His slower ball is hard to play even on a good wicket, let alone on something like this one," said the Australian born in Portugal.
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.
"I think we have a style of cricket where we like to hit the ball in Australia. We like the ball coming onto the bat, and we like to hit over the infield. As I said, on this wicket, that is really difficult to do. So the discipline to hang tight there as long as possible to the back end of the innings. I think we need to put more batting performances together," Agar told the media.
