Local starlets refuse sidekick roles

The just-concluded season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) kicked off with mixed feelings a month ago owing to the unavailability of renowned, seasoned T20 campaigners in terms of foreign recruits, and of course the inclusion of the infamous Alternate Decision Review System (ADRS).

Setting aside the comedy of errors that took place along the way and the off-field conundrums, the entertainment provided by the on-field cricket has largely received a positive response from fans and experts alike.

The pitch has undoubtedly played a big role in the positive reviews. However, at the forefront of the overall success of this BPL has been the emergence of local starlets.

The absence of big names for the most part of the tournament appeared to have come as a blessing for the up-and-coming talents as the focus was on them to deliver. And quite a few, who are in and around the national setup, have shone under the spotlight this time around.

Sylhet Strikers, who have largely dominated the tournament from the onset, have had the luxury of having a few of those stand-out players, on the batting front. The likes of Najmul Hossain Shanto, Towhid Hridoy, and Zakir Hasan helped Sylhet to become the first team to qualify for the playoffs and to clinch a qualifier spot as well.

Shanto has made the tournament his own, amassing 452 runs at an average of 37.66, including three fifties in the 14 matches he has played leading up to the final. A strike rate of 113.85 raises a few reservations about his stats but when it came to giving his team solid starts at the top of the order, very few actually managed to do it better. The issue about Shanto's sluggish strike-rate is nothing new in T20s as the team-highest 180 runs the southpaw accumulated in the latest edition of the T20 World Cup came at a strike rate of 114.64.

Shanto's opening partner, Towhid Hridoy has had a stellar BPL as well. Perhaps, he has had the best outing in the tournament amongst any local player. In terms of delivering impactful, match-winning knocks, the 22-year-old has come leaps and bounds in doing justice to his talents.

The right-handed batter looked easy on the eyes and scored, portraying good reading of the game in terms of keeping the scoreboard ticking, and hitting gaps frequently. In the few instances that he felt the pressure, Hridoy showed the know-hows of weathering the storms and taking his team through troubled waters. His impressive 141.40 strike-rate, 40.30 average, and five fifties on course to scoring 403 runs are testaments to his growth as a player.

At the bowling side of things, Rangpur Riders speedster Hasan Mahmud is leading the charts for highest wicket-takers, with 17 up to the final. The 23-year-old has bowled at an economy rate of 7.98 and he knows his way around the popping crease as very few can bowl a yorker better in the national circuit. Hasan used this attribute to good use keeping a lid on things at death.

His teammate Rakibul Hasan has also impressed. The left-arm spinner has been difficult to hit due to his immaculate understanding of length and has managed to keep his end tight, boasting an economy rate of 6.47 while picking up 11 scalps leading up to the finale.

Of the same breed is Comilla Victorians spinner Tanvir Islam, though he is not quite a new name in the competition. The 26-year-old caught the eye in the previous season as well, helping his side win the competition.

Despite missing three matches at the beginning of Comilla's campaign, Tanvir made up ground and instantly showed what they were missing as with him in the side, Comilla won all of their matches after losing their first three contests. 

Leading up to the final, Tanvir scalped 16 wickets going at just 6.31 in an over. Like Rakibul, Tanvir's sense of length is impeccable making him hard to put away. He has taken the challenge of bowling with the new ball and has been an important factor in taking his team to the grand finale.

"We consider those who perform well and we try to provide a platform for them. There won't be an exception this time," national selector Habibul Bashar told The Daily Star on Tuesday.

With successive white-ball series in store against England and Ireland in the next two months, Hridoy seems most likely to have the shot at making the cut to the national T20I squad, considering the fact that he has been called up already for the first two ODIs against England while the likes of Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Afif Hossain, and Soumya Sarkar, whose long-standing lean patch remains especially worrisome.