Rubel Hossain

‘The Bangladesh Tigers have knocked the England Lions out of the World Cup,’ were the words of Nasser Hussain after Rubel’s full, pacy delivery knocked out James Anderson’s stumps in the 2015 World Cup. Bangladesh qualified for the knockouts for the first time and Rubel ran all across the Adelaide Oval. That’s the picture, the pacer bowler will remember for a lifetime.

The path to that moment wasn’t the easiest. Rubel was jailed by the Dhaka court in a case filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act on January 8, 2015. A Bangladeshi actress had filed the case against Rubel with Mirpur police station on charges of making false promises of marriage. His participation in the 2015 World Cup was under cloud but luckily he was granted bail and subsequently cleared for traveling abroad. After Bangladesh’s win over England on the back of Rubel’s heroics, the complainant withdrew her charges.

Born on January 1, 1990, Rubel Hossain is a fast bowler with a slightly slingy action - which gave him the nickname ‘Bangladesh’s Malinga’. He made his international ODI debut for Bangladesh in January 2009 and made an immediate impact taking 4/33 helping Bangladesh record an upset win over Sri Lanka in Dhaka. Rubel began by playing taped tennis ball cricket in his hometown, Bagerhat. He was noticed in a talent hunt programme where he topped the speed gun.

His hero is fellow paceman, Mashrafe Mortaza with whom he plays domestic cricket for Khulna Division. Rubel recorded his best ODI figures of 4/25 against New Zealand in 2010. This series is popularly known as 'Banglawash' as Bangladesh stunned New Zealand by an impressive margin of 4-0 in the 5 match ODI series. Rubel made his Test debut against West Indies in 2009 and took three wickets in West Indies' 1st innings, and also stitched a good 10th wicket stand with Shahadat Hossain in Bangladesh's 1st innings.

On 29 October 2013, he became the third Bangladeshi bowler to take a hat-trick in ODIs. He got it against New Zealand in Mirpur. The batsmen who were his victims included Corey Anderson, Brendon McCullum and Jimmy Neesham. He also got his best bowling figures (6/26) in that match. Rubel went quiet after a superb World Cup in Australia. There was a dip in his form, but that didn’t hamper his team’s performance as Bangladesh completed the troika of ODI series wins against Pakistan, India and South Africa. He continues to be part of the Bangladesh squads in the longer formats despite his high economy rate as he can trouble any batsman with his pace.

Injury to Mustafizur in the early part of the 2017 Champions Trophy meant that Rubel became an automatic pick. He didn't have a great tournament but has found his mojo back since then. With two injury prone bowlers in Mortaza and Mustafizur in the squad coupled with Taskin's inconsistencies, Rubel has a much bigger role to play in Bangladesh's pace attack for limited-overs cricket. In Tests, he continues to play the odd Test match but hasn't shown the potential to be a long format bowler. He isn't as bad as the numbers show - the stats are shambolic - but Rubel still has a long way to go as a red-ball bowler.

By Abhinand Raghavendran and Hariprasad Sadanandan