Living in orthodoxy: Rishad needs to rethink his MO

Bangladesh leg-spinner Rishad Hossain needs to go back to the drawing board and rethink how he wants to win games for the Tigers. Because what he has been dishing out in Bangladesh's consecutive T20I tours of the UAE and Pakistan has been nothing short of ordinary.

In the UAE tour in which he played two matches, he picked up three wickets at an economy of 7.50. From the looks of it, these numbers hardly look unpromising but delving deeper will lay bare key overs in which Rishad allowed a lowly-ranked UAE to double down on the Tigers and eke out victories in the last two matches of the series. 

Case in point is the 16th over in the third T20I in which Rishad leaked 19 runs which cracked the game wide open for the opposition.

The 22-year-old's struggles intensified in the following tour of Pakistan despite having played in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) for Lahore Qalandars earlier in the same month. His experience in the PSL seemed to offer little advantage. He finished the series with the highest economy rate among all bowlers from both teams -- 13.09 -- and managed just two wickets in three matches.

Sure, the wickets were batting-friendly but when a bowler is made to look amateurish in an international series, one must question his plans and execution.

It almost seemed that Rishad was rendered down to a part-time bowler who had just finished his batting in the nets and returned to help out his fellow batters by bowling a bit of leg-spin alongside the main bowlers.

Such was Rishad's state. His apparent strength -- the mastery of length -- seemed to have never travelled with him to Pakistan. He was either too short or unnecessarily full, spoon-feeding the Pakistan batters luscious boundaries, and rarely ruffling any feathers of the opposition. 

Rishad's strongest suit has been his ability to keep it accurate on the stumps on good lengths at onrushing speeds. The absence of turn has always been a limiting factor in his arsenal and he has almost all the time had to be reliant on favourable wickets to offer turn for him to become effective enough to keep batters modest. But taking out the assistance from the wickets often leaves him compromised, the latest example being the Pakistan series in which he was toothless in all three matches. A limited skillset in the absence of a googly also has made him an easy target in the last two series.

The orthodoxy on spin-friendly wickets that made him a mainstay in the T20I setup has now begun to be the cause for concern for the team -- slowly establishing the initial notions based on fears that his orthodoxy was bound to get exposed.

The immediate remedy? Rishad needs to sort his basics again and with that, he seriously needs to work on bringing something new to his arsenal, preferably the googly. Otherwise, he is bound to get exposed, particularly on batting-friendly surfaces, and in the long run, Bangladesh may be forced to reconsider using a leg-spinner in the lineup and instead revert to their traditional combination of two finger spinners -- one right-arm and one left-arm.

The team management has also got to take their share of blame for how they used Rishad. Undoubtedly, they'd always be looking to use the leg-spinner as the attacking option but the practice must be phase-oriented. Rishad can't be answer every time the Tigers are under the cosh. He can't always be bowling one over in the last five, especially when the wickets do not offer much for spinners.  

Captain Litton Das's growing tendency to deploy spinners in the final overs has backfired, notably in both the UAE and Pakistan series, with Rishad often on the receiving end of that tactical gamble.

If Bangladesh are to get the best out of Rishad, both the player and the team management must adapt technically, strategically, and tactically.

Rishad's rise in stature in the Bangladesh side and franchise cricket has naturally brought in more expectations. Even setting aside the reputation, one would expect a leg-spinner in the eleven to be the strike bowler, the attacking option. So that leaves Rishad no option but to come to terms with that weight of expectations. 

The positive aspect from Rishad's point of view is that he will, at least for the near future, get the backing of the team management that has so far nurtured and promoted him. He is the only viable leg-spin option for the Tigers at this moment and that works in his favour.

The choice is up to him – he can continue to dish out the usual or he can go back to the drawing board and come back with a much more enhanced skillset to win matches for Bangladesh.