Bangladesh have now had a dream run in the ODIs since the ICC World Cup 2015. They beat Pakistan at home 3-0 last month and now they have defeated a fancy Indian squad in the 1st ODI of the three-match series at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on Thursday.
Bangladesh were always a side who depended on their spinners, but skipper Mashrafe Mortaza decided to change things and showcase a side with four different kinds of fast bowlers who would be aptly backed by the veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan with his slow left arm off-spinners.
Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman and Mortaza himself picked up eight wickets against India in the opening match of the ODI series. All these bowlers have their own style of bowling and they mixed it up beautifully against the former World Champions to hand them a defeat by 79 runs.
Taskin Ahmed started off with proceeding when he sent back Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in quick successions and then all of a sudden the floodgates were opened by the debutant star Rahman who claimed a five on his debut match. He was the second Bangladeshi bowler after Ahmed to do so and suprisingly Ahmed too got his five-wicket haul against India last year in the Sahara Cup.
"We had one thought that we should pick an attack that will help us win. I have preferred picking three pace bowlers since I became captain last year. Bowlers will win you matches. Arafat Sunny has done tremendously well for us but we thought that Mustafizur's variation would be effective on this surface. Of course if we had failed to defend 307 runs, you would have asked a lot of questions but fortune favours the brave," Mortaza said in an interview to Espn Cricinfo.
The inclusion of Rahman in this charged-up Bangladeshi squad was indeed a brilliant decison by the skipper who thought that the former's variations might trouble the Indian batsmen under the lights and to everyone's surprise it did create a lot of problems for the visitors.
"Mustafizur, we thought, would be brand new to them. They must have thought I would open the bowling but we wanted to change things a bit. From the time I saw Mustafizur bowl in the nets and use his variations, I knew we needed him in the middle.
"Keeping him away from the XI would have done the team harm. Some of his cutters are unplayable as it turns more than spinners. You could see that their bats were turning in their hands, as they top-edged those catches. I was fully confident that he could do the job for us," Mortaza added.
