MATCH STORY
Follow UsWhen Mehidy Hasan Miraz got out caught and bowled to Khurram Shahzad in Bangladesh’s first innings in the second Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, he was so frustrated that he kept on repeating the action of how he should have played the shot. Outside the boundary ropes, he stood for what seemed like an eternity as he couldn’t believe he got out at a time when he was about to create history.
Mehidy, who scored 78, could have become the only Bangladesh player to score a century and take a five-wicket haul in an away Test. A feat that has never been achieved by even their greatest all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan. Though he could not get past Shakib this time, the off-spinner's form in the last two years shows that he is more than capable of taking over the baton from Bangladesh’s greatest and becoming the next Mr. Dependable for the nation’s senior men’s team.
Mehidy’s magical outing in Pakistan
If Mushfiqur Rahim was the reason Bangladesh got the lead in the first innings of the first Test of this series in Rawalpindi, Mehidy won the game on the fifth and final day. Not only did he have a brilliant 196-run stand with Rahim for the seventh wicket, scoring 77, but also took four crucial wickets to force a result.
It was Mehidy who took the lead after Shakib got Abdullah Shafique. The off-spinner got Salman Agha and Shaheen Afridi in quick succession to begin a Pakistani collapse. Just when Mohammad Rizwan seemed like drawing the game alongside Khurram, Mehidy forced the Pakistan wicket-keeper into committing a mistake and got him out LBW, while he was playing his favourite sweep shot.
Though Mehidy was not awarded Player of the Match, the Khulna-born was surely the player who turned the match around with both bat and ball.
In the second Test, the all-rounder was once again at the forefront of Bangladesh’s fight with both bat and ball. Not only did he take a five-wicket haul to restrict Pakistan to 274 in the first innings, but also scored 78 with the bat when the chips were down for Bangladesh.
Mehidy joined Litton Das when Bangladesh were 26/6, their joint-lowest score at the fall of the sixth wicket in a Test. The duo put up 165 for the seventh wicket. Mehidy was the one who started the counterattack as the team reached 75/6 at lunch. Out of the 49 runs that they had put together up until that point, Mehidy had scored 33.
Shining away from home
Not just this series, the U19 graduate has been magnificent in the last two years. Since 2022, the off-break bowler has taken 59 wickets in 16 Tests at an average of 30, which is lower than his career average of 32.
Among those 59 wickets, 30 have come away from home in just 13 innings compared to 29 at home in 15. His average away (29.1) in this period, in fact, is superior to his average at home. Mehidy is the only Bangladeshi bowler to have accumulated 10 wickets or more in four other countries than Bangladesh. Not even Shakib has been able to do that.
With the bat, the 26-year-old has scored 668 runs at an average of 26.72, which is a significant upgrade on his career average of 22.57. Away from home, with the bat, too, Mehidy has been able to hit two fifties.
Comparison with Shakib Al Hasan
Since Mehidy has taken such long strides in his eight-year-old Test career, it is natural to compare the off-spinning all-rounder with the greatest ever of his country.
After exactly eight years of his Test career, Shakib had taken 141 wickets and scored 2630 runs. His batting average was 39 and his bowling average 32, making it a difference of +7, which is the gold standard for a batting all-rounder, which Shakib was. He mostly batted at number five and six and very rarely at seven.
Mehidy, on the other hand, has played 45 Tests a month away from his 8th anniversary in Test cricket. He has scored 1625 runs at an average of 22.57 and taken 174 wickets at an average of 32.6, which is excellent for an off-spinner. He has two 10-wicket hauls and 10 five-wicket hauls to his name.
Though Mehidy has nearly 1000 runs less compared to Shakib in eight more innings, it could be mainly because he has batted at seven, eight and nine in 76 of his 81 innings.
But more than numbers, it is the confidence and growth of Mehidy that makes him the next big thing.
"I am often the last recognised batter," Mehidy had said after Bangladesh’s first innings in the first Test. "It is funny because our batters rely on the fact that I am there at the end. Everyone relies on me. At the end of the day, it is good that everyone can rely on me. I know that I can't bat above this position [right now], which is okay with me."
To understand where it's coming from, it would only be fair to go back to 2016 when Mehidy first burst onto the scene in the U19 World Cup. He led his team to their first-ever top-three finish in the competition’s history. With 242 runs and 12 wickets in his kitty, the then teenage sensation was named Player of the Series.
In the presentation ceremony of the third-place match, Mehidy said, "Like every other cricketer, I also dream of playing at the highest level for my country. But that requires perseverance and hard work, and I want to develop myself as a better cricketer.”
Eight years down the line, instead of just being a better cricketer and representing his country at the highest level, he is now their next Mr Dependable, as far as the longest format of the game is concerned.
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