Bangladesh’s newest speedster deals in raw pace

The newest addition in Bangladesh's pace bowling repertoire Nahid Rana exhibited his biggest asset – raw pace – on debut yesterday and while he was on the expensive side, he made up for it with breakthroughs against the run of play.

Rana's very first delivery in international cricket was at 146 km/h, which for a 21-year-old pacer who picked up the cricket ball after turning 18, was quite remarkable.

Rana's family was against him playing cricket and set a condition that he could pursue cricket only after passing the SSC exam. Rana, who comes from Chapainawabganj, fulfilled that condition and began his journey in cricket at the age of 18.

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Unlike many of his predecessors, his physical attributes, mainly his height, allows him to bowl quick and this ability of his has helped him circumvent many of the age-level stages his contemporaries had to go through and venture straight into first-class cricket.

In just 15 first-class matches, Rana has picked up 63 wickets and caught the eyes of Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, who called him up for a camp during the team's Test series against New Zealand last year.

Yesterday, he was handed the ball in the ninth over and he immediately impressed with his pace. However, his initiation was not entirely smooth as Lankan batters Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis punished him whenever he went short or wide.

Yet, when the Tigers had completely lost momentum following a 202-run sixth wicket stand between Dhananjaya and Kamindu, Nahid provided the breakthrough.

Nahid extracted extra bounce at consistent pace, something that Bangladesh have been missing since Ebadot Hossain's injury, and it helped him pick up the wickets of Mendis and Dhananjaya in the third session following their tons.

"He [Rana] is talented. He is fast. He bowled almost every ball at 145kph. He has a beautiful action. He is just so raw. He has a lot to learn but he is very talented," Bangladesh pace bowling coach Andre Adams said at the press conference yesterday at Chattogram.

"I am pretty excited. When you think about the young fast bowlers like Khaled [Ahmed] and [Tanzim Hasan] Sakib, who bowled very well in the ODIs and then got injured. I think they [pacers] are hungry to learn and hungry to do well. I am very happy with the crop we got," he added.

The pacers certainly made their presence felt in the first session, when Bangladesh picked up five wickets.

Khaled was the star of the show in the morning session, troubling the batters and picking up three wickets while Shoriful Islam, who ran hot and cold throughout the day, also picked up a wicket.

The lull in the second session was followed by Rana striking thrice in the third session which helped the hosts bundle out the visitors below 300.

The pace bowling coach was overall happy with the performance of the pacers but rued some missed chances.

"This is a pretty young bowling attack. Shoriful was good in parts. I thought Rana and Khaled bowled well together. We created several chances in the first session, which was exceptional. Especially when you think that there were only 10 overs of real pressure with the ball.

"Disappointing that we didn't grab two chances, which really could have spun the Test match. You have control if you take seven wickets at lunch."