Spotlight on teenage tearaway

Mustafizur Rahman's fairytale one-day debut against India at Mirpur on Thursday has made the left-arm pace bowler a superhero in Bangladesh and a pleasant surprise across the border.

The smiling baby face of the 19-year-old from Satkhira is now the biggest advertisement of every newspaper and news portal in Bangladesh and India, his off-cutters are now a prime time dose for any TV channel after his magnificent five-for heralded the fall of Mahendra Singh Dhoni's juggernauts in the first one-day international.

There are also others, who love promoting controversy, happily focusing this naive young lad with Dhoni after that much-debated mid-pitch collision in the extraordinary match that Bangladesh won by 79 runs.

Match referee Andy Pycroft fined Dhoni 75 per cent of his match fee, something that the affluent India captain will hardly mind to even donate. He also fined Mustafizur 50 per cent of his match fee. And nobody has noticed that it was very harsh on somebody who was supposed to get his biggest pay cheque -- something around Tk. 75,000 after deducting taxes -- to show his not-so-affluent parents. For someone unknown to the cricketing world until his T20 debut against Pakistan in April, where Mustafizur made an auspicious start with two wickets including the prized scalp of 'boom boom' Shahid Afridi, life has now suddenly changed for this shy young man.

Starting from his humble beginnings, his 40km ride with his brother to play for a nondescript club in Satkhira, to his introduction to the age-group team and to his meteoric rise; these are the most-read stories at the moment. The warmest of those stories includes how he earned one of his first pair of sporting shoes. While playing against Bagerhat in an under-16 tournament for Satkhira he was a bit nervous. Upon noticing that his brother Mokhlesur Rahman told him that he would get a new pair of sporting shoes if he managed to scalp three wickets. A determined Mustafizur aced that challenge by taking exactly three wickets in that match. Ever reluctant to focus on studying he was the happiest when he was on a cricket field and his family allowed him to follow his desired path, a path many parents may take as an example for their persuasive children to follow as a career after Mustafizur's fairytale.

He is now a hot property. But this is also a time for the Bangladesh team management to handle this young talent properly. He was a surprise for the Indians on Thursday. But when he will come out to bowl again in the second one-dayer at the same venue today, he won't be a surprise anymore for an Indian side hungry to make amends.

Mustafizur's off-cutters are deceptive; he has got a mature head on a young shoulders, he bowls good length and line. But the biggest problem is his pace. He bowls at an average 131kpm and with this pace it's very difficult to sustain at the highest level. The good news is that his muscles are still developing, which means his pace will increase with time.

It will be interesting to see how this young man reacts today against an Indian batting that has done their homework. If he gets a few punishing blows it would be wise to consider it his first baptism by fire. And if he stands tall again consider that he has come here to stay in the big league for a long time.