Asia Cup 2018: 5 Key Players for Bangladesh

Modified Sep 03, 2018 02:53 IST

Iqbal is the first and the only Bangladeshi player to have scored more than ten thousand international runs

#4 Mashrafe Mortaza

Ente — Mashrafe Mortaza is the symbol of Bangladesh's struggles and the sensational transformation they have gone through in the last few years

The first genuine fast bowler to emerge from the country, Mashrafe Mortaza is the symbol of Bangladesh's struggles and the sensational transformation they have gone through in the last few years. He has been the pace spearhead of his team for over a decade now and has done justice to the role.

He has also been captaining the side in the 50-over game for a long while and must get credit for the emergence of Bangladesh as a dominant force in this format.

Under his captaincy, Bangladesh made it to the knockouts for the first time in 2015 WC. Later, he led his team to ODI series wins against teams like Pakistan, India and South Africa.

In the last month itself, he charmingly turned the fortunes around for Bangladesh in the ODI series of the West Indies tour after they had been ruthlessly thrashed in the preceding Test series. He will look to carry the good form into the Asia Cup.

Mashrafe Mortaza in ODIs:

Matches - 190, Runs - 1653, Wickets - 245, Bowling avg. - 30.89, BBI - 26/6, 5W - 1