Rise of Sabbir

2010 Asian Games - Gold-medal match - Bangladesh versus Afghanistan. Tigers needed 44 runs from the last five overs of the T20 game. Cool and calm Sabbir smashed three sixes to give Bangladesh their first gold in the competition. Sabbir Rahman's unbeaten 33 from 18 balls in the match launched him into the limelight, and got people talking about the new sensation in Bangladesh cricket.

Back in 2008, Sabbir made his first class debut for Rajshahi division against Barisal, stonewalled one end with a stubborn innings of 18 runs from 105 balls. With wickets falling in quick succession, Sabbir held fort and showed his character in face of adversity. His lack of big scores in domestic first-class and one-day cricket delayed his debut for the national side; however his T20 exploits kept him in the radar of national selectors.

After Sabbir left his mark in the 2010 Asian Games as well as the 2010 U19 World Cup, he established himself as a hard-hitting batsman apart from a handy legspinner and an exceptional fielder in the domestic circuit. On 14 February, 2014, he got his break in the T20 match against Sri Lanka at Chittagong where he top scored with 26 runs from 36 balls. In the context of the match, his innings was crucial in giving Bangladesh's total some respectability after losing seven wickets for only 80 runs on the board.

Later in the year Sabbir made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Chittagong where he lived up to his reputation as an aggressive batsman by  smashing 44 runs from only 25 balls, entertaining the home crowd with three hits across the boundary and three towering six as well. Coming lower down the order, Sabbir has the freedom to blast away from ball one. He can also play watchfully when wickets fall in a heap, something he showed many times in domestic cricket.

Sabbir's best ODI innings for Bangladesh came against Sri Lanka during the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup at Melbourne. He scored 53 runs from 62 balls with seven boundaries to his name. When it seemed Bangladesh were heading for a huge defeat, Sabbir played his level best bring the margin down to make sure his team's net run-rate didn't dip too low.

Sabbir looks like a duck in water when it comes to the T20 format. His free-flowing style of batting is ideal for twenty overs, and he confirmed it during the lone T20 match against Pakistan on 24 April, 2015 at the Mirpur Stadium. After getting his eye in, he began smashing the Pakistani bowlers all around the park no matter how fast the ball came to him.

He remained unbeaten on 51 runs from only 32 balls, and whacked seven fours and one huge six to the delight of the home crowd. His partnership of 105 runs with Shakib Al Hasan gave Bangladesh their first T20 victory over Pakistan after seven consecutive defeats. Needless to say, Sabbir was the man of the match for his brilliant performance.