Simply Soumya

Standing tall with an upright stance, long stride towards the pitch of the ball, bat coming down gracefully from a high back-lift, cock of the wrist when the ball meets the bat, sweet sound of the willow preceding a loud cheer from the crowd, a boundary stroked beautifully – courtesy of Soumya Sarkar, Tigers' new sensation making headlines and turning heads.

Young by age and cricketing experience, Soumya Sarkar announced his arrival by smashing a scintillating century in his tenth innings during the third and final game of the three-match ODI series against Pakistan yesterday and ensured Bangladesh's 10th ODI series victory via a whitewash along the way.

The home crowd at Mirpur Stadium was treated to something really special, as Soumya's unbeaten knock of 127 runs from only 110 balls took the game away from Pakistan. He effortlessly shifted gears after his fifty, which came off 63 balls. The next 50 was scored off only 31 balls, with five stylish fours and three sixes. He brought up his hundred off a six as well, pulling a short delivery into the deep midwicket boundary. The thirteen 4s and six 6s in his innings brought out the glamour in his batting, something genetic with many left-handed batsmen of the past.

Soumya Sarkar was admitted to the BKSP institute in Savar at a tender age, and quickly validated his potential on the cricket field. He became an integral part of BKSP's league campaigns from 2008-09 season, got picked in the Bangladesh under-19 side and played in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup.

Aged 17 he made his first class debut, opened for Khulna Division against Dhaka Division at Rajshahi, made 24, all in boundaries. Not many batsmen have begun their first class careers with six fours, perhaps Soumya is the only one out there.

He was called up to the Bangladesh Twenty20 squad for the one-off game against New Zealand in November 2013. Unfortunately, he didn't play in that match. His domestic performance was hard to ignore, and when Chandika Hathurusingha took charge as Bangladesh's head coach in May 2014, Soumya instantly featured in his radar.

After his first ODI against Zimbabwe on December 1, 2014, Soumya didn't look back. A breezy knock of 20 runs from 18 balls isn't anything to write home about, but showed Soumya's style, good enough to satisfy a cricketing connoisseur any day.

Soumya Sarkar's ICC Cricket World Cup campaign down under wouldn't feature in his highlight reel, having scored 28, 25, 2, 40, 51 and 29 in the matches where he was picked. Soumya took heed to the advice offered to him by the senior statesmen in the dressing room; after all he was unable to convert his starts to a big knock.

In the third match of the ODI series against Pakistan, he made sure he learnt from his mistakes and hammered his first century, a memorable innings for many reasons.

Tigers have a new weapon in their repertoire – Soumya Sarkar!