Sunzamul Islam

The list of Bangladesh’s left-handed spinners just keeps getting bigger. Born in Rajshahi, Sunzamul Islam is a slow left-arm orthodox bowler who is no muck with the bat. He made his List A debut for Rajshahi Division in 2009 and had an impressive start - scalping four Sylhet wickets. In April 2014, he inspired a stunning Rajshahi victory smashing a brilliant 172, his maiden first-class ton scripting a 403-run win over Chittagong Division. A consistent first-class performer, his big breakthrough came in the 2016-17 season. Playing for North Zone, he scalped 9 wickets in the second innings against Central Zone in Chittagong. His figures of 9/80 is the third best by a Bangladeshi bowler in FC cricket.

He finished the season with 25 wickets - the joint highest wicket-taker along with Shuvgata Hom. He continued his good form with the ball in the T20 format playing for the Dhaka franchise - Dhaka Dynamites, He was an integral part of the Dynamites’ set-up that went on to win the 2016 edition of the Bangladesh Premier League. Defending a score of 159 against Rajshahi Kings, he took the important wickets of Samit Patel and James Franklin to finish with impressive figures of 2/17 in his quota of four overs.

Soon, Sunzamul was selected for the ODI and T20I series in Sri Lanka, but didn’t feature in any of those games. Being named in the tri-series and the Champions Trophy squad, he got his maiden ODI cap against Ireland on 19th May, 2017 in the series that also featured New Zealand. Islam dismissed Ed Joyce in his first over in international cricket. The southpaw ended with figures of 2/22 in his five overs before being ignored for the final game of the series.

Due to stiff competition with Mehidy Hasan (who is also a better batsman), Mehidy has hardly played any matches for Bangladesh but has shown promise whenever he has taken the field. He has been a veteran in the domestic circuit with a wealth of experience to his credit. Sunzamul has shown his wares across formats in domestic cricket and is expected to do the same for Bangladesh as well in the coming years. Having said that, he will have to face a lot of competition considering the country's plethora of left arm spinners.

By Abhinand Raghavendran and Hariprasad Sadanandan