Mehidy Hasan focused on repaying faith

Freakish, outstanding, unbelievable - all of them perfectly sum up Mehidy Hasan's heroics with the bat against India in the second ODI. Mehidy smashed 83-ball unbeaten 100 - his maiden in the format - becoming only the second batter to do so at no. 8 in ODI cricket.

"I did not think that I can score the century and I played for the team and because I was in a flow and Allah was gracious it happened," Mehiedy told reporters after the game on Wednesday (December 7).

Mehidy had played a match winning knock against India in the series opener, too, but what he did in the second game to seal the hosts' series win against India surely showed that he is on the path of becoming a genuine all-rounder.

Enjoying the faith that the team management has shown in him, the all-rounder felt determined to repay back the trust of head coach Russell Domingo who feels that the allrounder has got all the attributes to be the next Shakib al Hasan.

"I value him massively. I don't know how the public and media see him. As the coach, he is one of the first names on the sheet. Possibly Miraz is the guy (to take Shakib's place in the future). He has the game to bat in the top 5/6, and be a really consistent performer with the ball," Domingo told reporters ahead of the second game against India and Mehidy proved why the South African have such confidence in his abilities.

Mehidy noted that this trust of the management is helping him develop as an all-rounder. "When I started I was a bowler in Test cricket. I used to bat late in the order. At that point I used to think as I am bowling well (let me concentrate on it) and I was not getting a chance to bat," he said.

"Now I am bit matured and playing international cricket for five to six years and now I have adapted in a way that will be good for me. I am working on areas that I need to develop and my batting at the start was very poor in fact not good at all. It's not that now it became good but there is no end to improvement. Without improvement you cannot be successful and now trying to adapt mentally so that I can do well," he said.

"Look when the team management shows faith on any particular cricketer at that point the cricketer also stats to have more confidence. When I used to play as a bowler I felt that I am probably bowler and cannot bat but now everyone has that faith in me," he added.

India were comfortably placed in the match after reducing Bangladesh to 69-6 before Mehidy and Mahmudullah came up with a rearguard act to put up 148 runs for the seventh wicket stand to claw their way back in the game. Mehidy was happy that his senior partner took his suggestion in the middle.

"I just spoke one thing with Riyad bhai and we did not target that we have to score so many runs and as we have lost six wickets we wanted to play one ball at a time, and according to the situation. I felt good that sometimes I suggested Riyad bhai when he panicked and he had shown faith in my judgement despite being a senior. He wanted to attack at some point when I said that we need to take the game deep and those discussions really helped," he said.

With 23 balls left, Bangladesh were on 217-6 and Mehidy 34 away from the century but following the departure of Mahmudullah, he stepped on the gas alongside Nusum Ahmed.

"The only plan was to bat for 50 overs and when Riyad bhai got out I felt if we can take the run to 240 to 250 it will be good. Defending 230 and 250 are two different things. I think Nasum bhai batted brilliantly there and his 25-30 runs [18* off 11] were extremely important because we put 270 instead of 250. He scored quickly and that little contribution was helpful and necessary," he said.

This, however, was not a first for Mehidy, who has contributed match-winning acts in most of Bangladesh's recent successes against a stronger side in 2022. In January, Mehidy bowled 54 overs against New Zealand during their famous win in Mount Maunganui and in a match dominated by the pacers he kept the pressure by stopping the hosts from scoring freely, picking four wickets to make his presence felt.

In the following month, Bangladesh were struggling at 45-6 chasing 215 runs against Afghanistan at home before Mehidy and Afif Hossain rescued them with their brilliant batting display by putting unbeaten 174 runs for the seventh wicket stand.

Mehidy looked like he was batting from where he left off in the opening game against India and made sure that he doesn't lose his wicket trying something before it was the right time to do so. Mehidy chose his bowlers to perfection and knew exactly when to go after them, just like any proper batter, and the way he rotated the strike with Mahmudullah gave enough indication about the inner confidence that he carries when it comes to hitting the ball with the bat.

The right-handed batter struck three fours off Umran Malik in the 49th over of the innings. Mehidy blazed against Shardul Thakur in the last over to get the required 15 runs to reach the three-digit mark and it was a perfect example of his batting approach that clearly suggested that he was dictating the terms against the Indian bowling attack that looked clueless in front of his power-hitting.

Mehidy added that team management's decision to open innings with him in shortest format helped him a lot in gaining the inner confidence that he can do something with the willow.

"Opening helped me, especially opening in New Zealand and playing the pace bowlers there helped me to improve and opening in Dubai also helped me. The faith of team management is helping me in my batting as I have also started having that trust on my batting."