Rishad’s emergence not yet a watershed for leg-spin

Rishad Hossain grabbing the attention of the cricket world through his wrist-spin was perhaps the biggest positive takeaway for Bangladesh from an otherwise underwhelming campaign in the recently-concluded ICC T20 World Cup.

The leggie grabbed 14 wickets in seven matches in competition, finishing as Bangladesh's most successful bowler in the competition, and joint third overall in the tournament.

Rishad's performance in the T20 World Cup vindicated the management's years of investment on the 21-year-old.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), which often finds itself at the receiving end of criticism – mostly for the off-the-field issues while on-field performances also don't help them much – had singled out the leggie years ago and had been preparing him for the national side.

Rishad first got into the scenes in 2017 through 'Robi Khoj: The Number 1 Spinner', a talent hunt where he was awarded the title of the 'Most Accurate Bowler'. Since then, Rishad has featured in many developmental teams of the BCB, even when he was hardly getting a game at the domestic level.

The officials at the board must now be heaving a sigh of great relief as their blueprint of nurturing Rishad for the national team has clicked, that too on the big stage, and they are now getting the applause from the country's cricketing fraternity for their long-term planning.

Although the emergence of Rishad Hossain is a huge positive for Bangladesh cricket, it would be unwise for the management to get complacent about their leg-spin reserves just now.

Rishad has started his career with a lot of promise, but there is no telling whether he would go strength to strength from here or end up as a one-tournament wonder.

Experts suggested that the process of nurturing wrist-spinners from a young age needs to continue and feel that Rishad can become a role model for the aspiring leggies in Bangladesh.

"I think the leg-spinners in different age-level teams now can be inspired by Rishad," said Sohel Islam, the Bangladesh Tigers head coach, who closely worked with Rishad in the High Performance Unit, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"You need to have examples in cricket. When Rashid Khan started bowling leg-spin in Afghanistan, he set an example there. Many Afghan boys got interested through Rashid's bowling and started bowling like him. As Rishad does well in international cricket, the number of leg-spinners in the country will also increase," he added.

The BCB's game development committee is currently running a camp for wrist-spinners and Sohel expects to find a few promising leggies from there.

"The spinners in the camp are from different age groups. The board is thinking of sending them to different age-level teams to get match practice," said Sohel.

Veteran coach Wahidul Gani, who is currently looking after the Under-14 and Under-15 setups, feels a collective approach from the BCB and domestic teams is required to ensure continued success in the wrist-spin department.

"This year in U14, U15 age-level tournaments, we made it mandatory to play a leg-spinner in every team and to give him five overs. This is how we are trying to give leggies playing opportunities. But I don't think it's the correct way to make a leg-spinner. The player needs to have talent and earn the trust of their coaches," Gani told The Daily Star.

"There is a saying in sports that winning is a poor teacher. We play to win, but we can get a good player while losing a match. We need to have faith in him and also need people who understand right-arm wrist-spin," he said, adding that Mushtaq Ahmed's inclusion as Tiger's bowling coach can play a big role in Rishad's development. "I think having Mushtaq will also help Rishad a lot because he has played at the top level. He knows the quality of batsmen at the top level and their footwork very well. I think Mushtaq's experience will help him a lot."