Mohammad Ashraful's Debut in International Cricket

Ashraful is a man whom the world will definitly remember as a talent that was wasted. He raised the hopes of many Bangladeshi and even neutral cricket lovers that this guy may take his team to new heights which will give another competitive side to the cricketing world. But over the years after raising the hopes he has miserably failed to live up to the expectations.

He never looked forward to take the charge and be on the forefront with some responsible batting. Everytime he came out to bat one would only hope that he does not play any silly shot. He had that knack of selecting a poor shot just when it was not required. Moreover after his ban from cricket because of his involvement in fixing, his career has sunk into a deep pit which could have otherwise been a glorius inspirational success story.

On the back of some good all-round performances Ashraful got selected for the Bangladesh team. He had only played one domestic season in which he was played more as a bowling all rounder. In his debut ODI match against Zimbabwe on 11 April 2001, he scored only 9 runs. He was failing continously in the ODIs but it was the Test format which really established him as an international sensation.

Ashraful made his debut against Sri Lanka and scored 114 and became the youngest batsman to score a Test century. This gave Ashraful an overnight fame since he battled hard against the likes of Vaas and Murali as a 17 yr old. The then Bangladeshi coach Trevor Chapple said that Ashraful gives so much of concentration and dedication to his batting that it made him believe that he is there to stay for a long run.

But after this superb kick start to his career he was totally out of his best and was not scoring runs. He was dropped from the team and later he came back again in 2004 and he scored an unbeaten 158 which really made people to think that he had finally matured as a cricketer and he will do justice to his career. In the England tour he scored 259 runs in six matches at an average of 45, which included a match winning ton against Australia.

But after this he couldn’t sustain at the same level and was constantly getting dropped from the side before the match fixing saga ended his career.