I don’t watch a lot of cricket: Mustafizur

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman revealed that he hardly watches cricket matches and only tunes in for the final few overs of Twenty20 games and said that playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a dream come true for him.

"I've never been an avid cricket watcher, I prefer playing," Mustafizur said in a video shared by CSK on the social media platforms today.

"I think that it's better for me to watch at that period [death overs]. Even when I watch a T20 match, I only watch the final four overs or so. I try to observe which areas the batsmen are hitting the ball at, how they are playing. Very rarely I watch the entire 40 overs of the match," he added.

Mustafizur is currently playing his first season for CSK, IPL's joint most successful franchise with five title wins. The Bangladeshi seamer has enjoyed considerable success this season, claiming 12 wickets in seven games, which makes him Chennai's most successful bowler in this season so far.

The left-arm pacer was in New Zealand with the Bangladesh team when he was roped in by the franchise last year in the IPL auction for his base price of INR two crore. Mustafizur said he had long been dreaming of playing for Chennai.

"This is my first season with Chennai. Since I began playing in the IPL in 2016, it has been my dream to play for the Chennai team. After getting the call [from CSK management] that night, I couldn't sleep."

The 28-year-old also spoke about how he has been enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the Chennai team and how former CSK captain MS Dhoni, who relinquished captaincy this season, and bowling coach Dwayne Bravo have been sharing their knowledge with him.

"Everyone here is friendly. The environment has been good from day one, I haven't felt uneasy at all. Mahi bhai [Dhoni] showed me some field setups, Bravo spoke to me about how to bowl in the death overs. These inputs have been invaluable.

"We mostly speak about bowling. I haven't really spoken about anything else. We speak sometimes on the field about what to do. Mahi bhai comes to me and tells me that it would be better if I did this."