Can Kiwis unravel the Fizz mystery?

Standing on his toes for a second, he slightly leans forward with the ball in hand before running towards the popping crease just like a regular fast bowler. This aforementioned part of Mustafizur Rahman's bowling is familiar to almost everyone including the batsmen who have faced the left-armer or have seen his game footage.

But what's next?

The mystery, however, is stored in the next part of his bowling -- the delivery. That is the part that has made many team managements scratch their heads over, including the Australians who toured Bangladesh for five T20Is last month, and even forced Ashton Agar to refer to the 25-year-old pacer as a 'difficult customer' with 'incredible skill'.

And it is Mustafizur's guile and understanding of the game that is what makes the mystery all the more complicated for batsmen to untangle. He makes adjustments to his delivery right before releasing the ball. At times, he runs off with the intention of bowling a yorker, and depending on the batsman's movement, ends up bowling his typical off-cutter.

How Mustafizur, who is often labelled as a 'quick spinner' for his ability to not sacrifice much of his pace while bowling cutters, makes life difficult for the opposition was best depicted in the penultimate over that he bowled against the Aussies in the third T20I. Bamboozled by the Fizz magic, Alex Carey and Dan Christian could manage just a solitary run while they failed to even connect four deliveries at the most crucial juncture of the game when Australia needed 23 off the last 12 deliveries.

Australia, in their five-match series, were not able to unravel the mystery and went back home after losing the only bilateral T20I series ever arranged between the two sides. Now, the Kiwis brace for facing Bangladesh in a five-match T20I series, starting from today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

And with all the matches set to be played at the same venue, the biggest challenge for the Kiwis will be Mustafizur, who masters the craft of using the slow and low Mirpur surfaces to the best of his ability in creating even more illusion and deception.

New Zealand's stand-in coach Glenn Pocknall, however, has said that his side will try to reverse the role and instead put Mustafizur under pressure. While it is a bold statement coming from a side who are touring without any of their regular T20 players, the battle between the Kiwi batsmen and Mustafizur surely remains the most anticipated one before the series kicks off.

And only time will tell whether the Kiwis, even after observing the pacer's footage from the Australia series closely and chalking out a certain plan, will be able to unravel the Fizz mystery or not.