Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman. File Photo: Star

On Mustafizur Rahman

What I can say about Mustafiz? Mashallah. As the days go by I get more and more impressed with what he is showing. He is just an exceptional guy. His cricketing brain and smartness on the field are amazing features. He will be advised from various quarters but ultimately he should take his own decision. Yes, there are discussions and different opinions about what he should do, how much he can play and whether there is a need for a guarded approach to prolong his career. What I personally believe is that he will be invited for every T20 league around the world. Everybody will want to rope him into their team. It will be his choice and his call about how much he plays. But in my opinion he must get his body ready to meet the demand from around the world. And I want to reiterate that. Getting his body ready will be the biggest challenge of his career. I am sure Mustafiz knows that very well and he knows what he will need to do. Just think about his slower deliveries and the yorkers that he has executed in the ongoing IPL. There are some aspects of his bowling that we have seen in the IPL that we didn't even have any idea about. So you can understand how smart a cricketer he is. He understood that only cutters would not be good enough to bring success in the IPL, so he developed new weapons. Nobody told him what he needed to do and I believe nobody will need to tell him what needs to do in the future. But still, my opinion is that if you want to be a great cricketer, you must be successful in Test cricket and I am sure Mustafiz, his family and our board will guide him in the best possible way.

On Jubair Hossain

I have faith in Jubair's talent. He can only improve if he gets to play more games. I still believe that he can be an asset to the national team. You must take the challenge and risk when you want to play a leg-spinner. He bowled well in the National Cricket League for Chittagong and bowled long spells with success. In the Dhaka Premier League he has played four matches for Abahani and is top of the bowling chart with 12 wickets. He may cost you few runs but he has the ability to get wickets in crunch situations. He can completely change the complexion of a match with a single delivery. On flat wickets you have an edge with a leg-spinner. If I am not wrong, since the Test against India in June last year he played only ten matches. So how can you expect to see anything from him. In the first game of the league he was exceptional. He took six wickets. But he had a bad day in the second game.  There was a mixture of good and bad in the third match while in the fourth game I reserved his two overs so that he could bowl in the later stages. You must accept that a leg-spinner will do well some days, but not be at his best on others. Yes, he has problem with short deliveries and full tosses but even the world's best leg-spinners have had similar problems. He won't improve just by bowling in the nets; he needs to play more games and that's the only way he can mature. That's a simple recipe for grooming a leg-spinner. He is still very young and inexperienced, so we must give him confidence. Not only the captain but if the whole team stands behind a player, he is bound to give you good service and if it is a player like Jubair you will definitely get a good result.