Rishad Hossain dominated attention following a stellar performance during Bangladesh’s recently concluded white-ball tour of New Zealand, which earned the nation’s head coach Chandika Hathurusingha commendation.
“Another positive (from the white-ball tour of New Zealand) is I think Rishad. We were craving for a leg spinner, to give him the opportunity to play limited overs cricket. He came out with flying colours I think,” Hathurusingha told reporters in Mount Maunganui on December 31.
Against New Zealand, the leg spinner displayed glimpses of his bowling prowess through his ability to bind down batsmen and demonstrate some of the variations he has recently incorporated into his repertoire by redefining his action.
“I worked with his bowling action,” BCB game development coach Mahbub Ali Zaki told CricAdvisor. “I just told him to turn one or two deliveries. He used to release the ball from the top like Anil Kumble and as he used to release it from the top, the ball does not remain in the shape that is required for leg spin. Instead, it became top spin or googly.”
“I just told him that you try two leg spin and four googlies in an over, as his main strength turned out to be his googly. If you can remember Likhon (Jubair) turned out to be a googly master and when he tried to learn leg spin, his googly got affected. I just focused on bringing the right balance to his bowling by helping him to bowl one or two leg spin deliveries along with three or four googlies. To be honest he cannot turn the ball that much,” he said.
“If he cannot bowl a bit slow, he cannot he cannot spin the ball. I just tried to keep the non bowling arm locked for a fraction of second and due to that he gets some time to organize his bowling because if you want to roll the wrist you need some time. I just asked him try one or two leg spin as that will help him become a better bowler,” he added.
It represented a significant departure from his previous approach, as the 6-foot-1-inch-tall bowler appeared to rely more heavily on velocity variation.
