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Mustafizur's path a road less travelled

A look at the wildly divergent paths taken by quicks Pat Cummins and Mustafizur Rahman, which will intersect in Dhaka on Sunday

The burden of expectation that Pat Cummins lugged through years of frustrating and gruelling rehabilitation for his broken back was the legacy of his maiden Test appearance when, as an 18-year-old, he was rightly crowned player of the match.

Imagine then, the legend that has already flourished around Bangladesh's pace-bowling prodigy Mustafizur Rahman who not only collected that same individual honour in his debut Test, he preceded it by being judged the outstanding player in each of his first two ODIs.

All three trophies pocketed prior to his 20th birthday.

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The young quicks – Cummins now 24 and fully fit, Mustafizur celebrating his 22nd birthday during the second Test against Australia at Chittagong and in his third year as an international cricketer – are likely to play pivotal roles with the new ball in the upcoming Test campaign.

But apart from the instant impact they wielded at cricket's elite level, the pace pair have navigated wildly divergent paths en route to the point where their respective Test careers will intersect at Dhaka's National Stadium on Sunday.

Cummins was fast-tracked into fast-bowling from age eight when he played his first representative match for his local Penrith Junior Cricket Association in Sydney's Blue Mountains, his development coaches recognising a rare talent that then carried him to senior club cricket as a 14-year-old.

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At that same age, Mustafizur had not yet seen, let alone grasped a leather cricket ball and the only organised games to which he was party were at school in his small village of Tetulia in Bangladesh's south-west – closer to Kolkata in neighbouring India than to the capital, Dhaka – where cricket was played with a tennis ball.

He had witnessed his older brothers' ambitions in the village-based TV Cup competition – a feature in rural Bangladesh where villages cobble together teams of willing players in pursuit of the cherished prize, a television worth around $A50 – but had no exposure to formal cricket until he tried out for a local under-16 team.

The teenager's wrong-footed bowling action meant he was wildly inaccurate although able to generate good pace, and so unfamiliar was he with hard leather balls that he was unable to lay a hand on them when asked to showcase his fielding skills.

Yet he was one of more than 50 boys who tried out to be added to a divisional squad that trained at Satkhira, 40km by bumpy rural roads from Tetulia.

A town that Mustafizur had never visited until his older brother, Mokhlesur, began ferrying him back and forth on the back of his motorbike to attend regular training sessions.

The fact that Mustafizur went wicketless in his first three matches at divisional level did not dim his potential, and he was invited to make his maiden trip to Dhaka as part of a national under-age pace bowling camp, and then an academy berth that led to his inclusion in Bangladesh's under-19 squad in 2013.

It was in Dhaka a year later, bowling in the nets at the National Stadium that will host this weekend's first Test, that the teenager found himself pitted against wicketkeeper-batsman Anamul Haque who queried whether Mustafizur possessed a slower ball in his left-arm repertoire.

Unsure of whether he did or didn't, Mustafizur rolled his fingers across the seam and dropped around 10km/h from his usual bowling speed of around 130km/h with no discernible change in action, the resultant cutter catching Anamul unawares and accounting for his wicket.

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"He's got the ability to swing it, and he's got an unbelievable change-up with his slower ball," Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who has played against Mustafizur in the Indian Premier League, noted in Dhaka yesterday.

"He's not your conventional left-arm seamer, he's obviously got a very flexible wrist where he can flick it at the last moment and it looks exactly the same as either his bumper or his slower ball, so it's a hard thing to pick up."

Already armed with a laser-like yorker, Mustafizur then worked on developing two cutters – one that he bowls at full pace and the original, well disguised slower version – that have helped lift him from bowling novice to decorated international within the time that most teenagers take to complete secondary school.

Now, when Mustafizur makes the rare journey back to Tetulia village, via the nearest airport at Jessore and the next land transport hub at Satkhira 130km away, he receives a rock star welcome.

His father Al-Haj Abul Kashem Gazi, who identified with another left-arm quick – Pakistan's former captain Wasim Akram – in the days before Bangladesh strode cricket's world stage, takes quiet pride in his youngest boy's debut heroics against South Africa (in his maiden Test) and vaunted rivals India (his first two ODIs).

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Mustafizur's boyhood friends showered him with gifts of his favourite food in the wake of his triumphs – chicken, sweet plums and jack fruit, all sourced from their family homes.

And while he boasts the acumen and the results to suggest he will only continue to grow in stature as a paceman in a nation where most wise youngsters see batting or spin bowling as their surest path to higher honours, Mustafizur has yet to reveal a fast bowler's fiery temperament.

Instead, he decries the practice of sledging.

And he maintains that regardless of whether he's taking wickets or taking tap from opposition batters, as was the case when India's captain Virat Kohli went after him in Mustafizur's second ODI appearance at Dhaka two years ago, there is nothing to be gained from ranting at his rivals.

"I don't sledge," said Mustafizur, whose bowling hero was Pakistan's left-arm quick Mohammad Amir, when asked how he responded to Kohli's spirited attack.

"I don't like this thing.

"Some people tell me that a pace bowler has to do it, but I think the batsmen will do their job, I will do mine.

"I didn't get Kohli's wicket (that day), but it would have been great to have it. After hitting me for a four and a six he asked me, 'why do you bowl so slowly?'

"I didn't say anything."

But Mustafizur finished that match with 6-43 to spearhead Bangladesh's historic first series win over their heavyweight neighbour.

And was named player of the match, of course.

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade.

Bangladesh squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mominul Haque.


22-23 August Tour match, TBC


27-31 August First Test, Dhaka


4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong