Biography

While youngsters of his age were busy charting their next career move, Mushfiqur Rahim at 16 had already gone down in history books as one of the youngest debutants in the history of the game.

Selected as the understudy of then keeper Khaled Mashud for the England tour, Mushfiqur played his first Test as a specialist batsman but went on to have a rather forgettable debut. The agony increased with an ankle injury ruling him out from the second game but after leading Bangladesh in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup, he was once again called up for a Test against Sri Lanka. However, he was all at sea against the spin bowling of Muttiah Muralidaran. Dropped in the aftermath, the glove-man however, had the stars on his side in 2006, as he received his maiden ODI call-up and also debuted against Zimbabwe. Just one half century prior to the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup was deemed good enough by the selectors for him to make it to the event ahead of a struggling Mashud. He contributed 56 runs as Bangladesh pulled off a shock win over India and a year after his axing, also returned to Test cricket scoring a stoic 80 in a losing cause against the Lankans.

In 2010, he scored his maiden Test ton against the Indians and soon became a mainstay in the team having vice captained the side on several occasions. The following year, he was named captain of the team after Shakib Al Hasan's sacking post the disastrous Zimbabwe tour, where the side lost the only Test as well as the ODI series. A constant chatterer, Mushfiqur is also renowned for his vociferous appealing and jumping behind the stumps and is indispensable to the Bangladesh team.