‘Fizz has to work on alternatives’

Mustafizur Rahman could have emerged as a hero for Delhi Capitals as the left-arm seamer played his first Indian Premier League game of the season, but two wrong deliveries from the 'cutter master' ultimately turned the tide in Mumbai Indians' favour on Tuesday.

Although Mustafizur conceded 13 runs from his first over, he came back in the 15th over and stayed tight, giving away just two runs. In his third over, he removed Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma for 65 to bring Delhi back into the game.

But it was in the crucial 19th over of the innings, with Mumbai needing 20 runs off the last two overs, when a predictable Mustafizur was hit for two sixes by Cameron Green and Tim David. Both deliveries that were hit out of the park were slower off-cutters from the 'cutter master'.

According to local pace bowling coach Mahbub Ali, a lack of skills development is the biggest reason Mustafizur has become predictable. He opined that the pacer needed to work a lot more to have an impact.

"When Mustafizur first played in the IPL, he was a surprise package around world cricket with his cutters and emerged as an extraordinary bowler. But over the years, players have become aware of those cutters. I think he needs variation in terms of pace as well, since he is not an express fast bowler. I feel he has not developed much or tried to work on alternatives as a bowler. You can see the young pacers are trying different pace variations and it is something you develop by working in the nets," Ali told The Daily Star yesterday.

He added that a lack of skills development had hurt other players, saying that a majority of the other cricketers in the Bangladesh team were in a similar position.

"It is actually a problem with the entire Bangladesh team. We don't see developments of their skills. We should be competing with the top six teams in world cricket. But if we had to fight hard against Ireland, then we need to think about our standards," he said.