Terrific Tiger could lose his 'Fizz': Warner

Australia vice-captain David Warner has urged Bangladesh to carefully manage prodigious quick Mustafizur Rahman, suggesting the paceman may soon need prioritise one form of the game over the others in order to avoid burnout.

Mustafizur, affectionately dubbed 'The Fizz', last year starred in his first season of the Indian Premier League under the guidance of Warner, as the pair helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden title.

Warner was one of a number of Mustafizur's Sunrisers teammates to wish him a happy 22nd birthday via WhatsApp on Wednesday, and the opener's gift for the Bangladesh quick was his wicket, albeit coming after he'd struck an outstanding 123 across days two and three of the second Test in Chittagong.

A left-armer with a whippy action and deceptive slower balls, Mustafizur has a tremendous record in all three international formats; he averages 24.91 in Test cricket, 19.79 in one-day internationals and 14.92 in T20Is.

His success has made him one of Bangladesh's first-picked players, but Warner warns that he risks being burnt out if he isn't managed properly.

"He's a very good bowler. I think the one thing that Bangladesh have to do is look after him," Warner told reporters at stumps on day three, with Australia holding a 72-run lead.

"You have to look after your fast bowlers, so if he's your number one strike bowler moving forward when you've got a couple of Test matches and one-dayers coming up, you've really got to monitor that.

"You've got to prioritise whether it's Test cricket, one-day cricket, Twenty20 cricket.

"That's obviously a conversation for them to have with him but I think he's an exceptional talent, an exceptional bowler, and it's upon himself to work out if he wants to play all three forms, one form, or two forms."

From the small village of Tetulia in Bangladesh's south-west, Mustafizur grew up playing cricket with a tennis ball and didn't bowl with the leather ball he now expertly wields until he was well into his teens.

He quickly developed the ability to bowl two types of off-cutters – one at similar pace to his stock ball, the other a well-disguised slower delivery – in addition to a searing yorker.

Those skills vaulted him into the national side as a teenager, picking up player-of-the-match awards in his first two ODIs as well his maiden Test against South Africa in 2015.

The following year Mustafizur was handed an IPL contract and he quickly became Hyderabad's trump card in their title-winning team, which also featured Warner and fellow Australians Moises Henriques and Ben Cutting.

Glenn Maxwell suggested in the lead-in to the first Test in Dhaka that Mustafizur's pace may have dipped slightly as he deals with crushing workloads of a leading international pace bowler.

While he went wicketless in the first Test, a spirited effort across days two and three earned him three scalps in Australia's first innings in trying conditions for the seamers.

"To try and find rhythm on that wicket for any fast bowler is challenging," Warner said.

"There's no pace in the wicket, the new ball is the only time you can really come on and hurry the batsman.

"A lot of credit has to go to the two fast bowlers (Pat Cummins and Mustafizur).

"The amount of work that they've put in, it takes someone with some good fitness to bowl through that."

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Steve O'Keefe, 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.

27-31 August First Test, Dhaka, Bangladesh won by 20 runs

4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong