Has the Saifuddin bubble burst?

Much of Mohammad Saifuddin's supposed reputation as a pace-bowling all-rounder is built on hype. 

Sure, Saifuddin has dished out glimpses of his talents with bat and ball in domestic competitions but can those sparks of promise in lower-quality contests be used to solidify faith in the 27-year-old heading into the T20 World Cup in June?

Saifuddin got his bearings wrong and was all over the place in Bangladesh's eight-wicket loss in the fifth and final T20I against Zimbabwe yesterday in Mirpur. The right-arm seamer struggled to keep a lid on things and was picked apart for 55 runs in his four overs, including a 19-run penultimate over which helped a relatively feeble Zimbabwe pick up their only win in the tour in what has been an ordinary series for the visitors.

A bubble has been inflated by fans and experts alike around the inclusion of Saifuddin, a player who is the only pace-bowling all-round option in this current Bangladesh side.

What aspects of Saifuddin's skillset are Bangladesh looking for?

Ideally, the Tigers should be looking to use Saifuddin for his bowling, particularly at the death. He has a reputation for finding the blockhole and bowling spearing yorkers in domestic competitions and this perception has often brought him to the fore whenever the Tigers have faced a death bowling crisis. But how often has he been able to deliver on his strength, especially in national colours?

Saifuddin has often resorted to the change of pace, pitching halfway onto the pitch instead of going for what he was known for in his Under-19 days -- executing yorkers, almost at will.

The ongoing series was a test for the 27-year-old to see how he holds up in the five-match series, at least fitness-wise. He has picked up eight wickets in the four matches at an economy rate of 9.31 and has been used by skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto in all three phases of the innings.

With Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, and Taskin Ahmed -- the latter's inclusion for the T20 World Cup being subject to his recovery from his recent rib cage injury – making up the pace-bowling line-up, the Tigers can't really use Saifuddin as a strike bowler as he bowls at a gentle pace and would have a hard time unsettling batters with pace. He can be a useful option in the middle overs due to his expertise in changing the pace but much of his usefulness will depend on whether he can get his yorkers right.

In the Zimbabwe series, Saifuddin, despite having the reputation for bowling vicious yorkers, stuck to his toothless slower-ball bouncers and often was taken for boundaries. Of the 96 balls he bowled in the series, only six were yorkers (6.25 percent). He conceded the least amount of runs -- only three -- with those deliveries and picked up two wickets.

In Saifuddin's case, often his role as a lower-middle-order batter, who can come with some lusty blows at the death, is brought to the fore. But how much can the batter Saifuddin deliver in such scenarios? He scored 101 runs in this year's Dhaka Premier League at a strike rate of 100 in 10 innings -- a stat that does very little to make his case as an explosive batter lower down the order, especially when considering the subpar standard of the domestic league.

Maybe it is time for the Bangladesh team management to call a spade a spade and rethink what they are looking for from Saifuddin.