"I am really enjoying my bowling at the moment" - Shoriful

Bangladesh's Shoriful Islam is clearly one of the big stars in his team right now now and has slowly come out from the shadows of Mustafizur Rahman. The former is the leading wicket taker across all formats in 2023. In an exclusive interview with Cricbuzz, Shoriful discussed a plethora of topics regarding himself, including the two sides of his character along with his feeling after not getting the NOC for Indian Premier League.

Here are the excerpts

During your early days you went far from your village in a cycle to see the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman in 2015. Now you are bowling alongside him in the Bangladesh team. How does it feel?

When I first saw the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman in 2015 at that point of time I felt that if someone like him who was very lean at that stage can bowl in the national stage why I cannot do it. When I first joined him in the national camp I was staring at him (Mustafizur) for a long time. I was looking at others too but looking at him and sharing the dressing room with him was something like a dream come true for me considering he was my idol. Whenever I bowl with him I always feel good considering I am bowling with someone whom I have grown up idolizing.

Since the Under-19 World Cup final against India one thing set you apart from others and that is your aggression. You are a very happy-go-lucky type of guy but when you are on the field, you are just something else. Can you tell us more about this difference in your character?

Actually I play from the core of my heart and I don't like to lose. I might be performing badly at times but I don't want to give an inch to the opponent. Even if I am hit, always I wanted to show that I can make a comeback and it remained that way since my childhood. I am two different people inside and outside the field.

You had a groin injury in 2022 and were left in the wilderness. Many felt that you played too much cricket across formats and paid the price for it. In 2024, Bangladesh will have 14 Tests along with other format games. So what's your opinion on workload management?

You might be right that at times I had overload. This is a very important thing (managing workload) and I feel that if people assigned to manage our workload can guide us properly in that case we have some way to prevent injuries. Injury doesn't come with any notice and it can happen while playing but I have to try and see how I can remain away from it through maintaining my workload. You can see in the world that fast bowlers' pace decreases after coming out of injury, like say Shaheen Shah Afridi. The main job of our workload management team is to guide us till the World Cup and if we can play accordingly, in that case the pace might be intact or it can increase but the chance of getting lesser (pace) will go down drastically.

While playing alongside Taskin and Ebadot you had one role and now you are having a different role in their absence, more of a leading bowler. Your head coach Chandika Hathurusingha insisted that now you are the best bowler of the team. How are you adapting with these changes and roles?

Actually I am really enjoying my bowling at the moment. When they were playing, they did an excellent job and in their absence I am trying to fulfil my duty to the best of my ability. If they were fit they could have done better than me and it would have been helpful to the team. Now I cannot say how much I could do in their absence but when a coach praises you, it always inspires you but I would like to continue the way I am doing when they arrive and in that case it will be beneficial to the country.

As a pace unit how do you complement each other on and off the field? When some pacer is going through a rough phase, what do you do to bring back his confidence?

When someone is doing badly at that point of time we talk with him a lot like gossiping most of the time in his room and try to make sure he forgets the bad times at the earliest possible time and we learnt this lesson through Mustafizur bhai and Taskin bhai. We just don't want him to feel that he is going through a rough phase but in cricket you will not be performing all the time. Even after doing badly in a game, I have seen Mustafizur and Taskin bhai are quite relaxed and probably they know how to get over it (bad time) quickly and don't have to do things that youngsters need to do to get over after performing badly. Mustafizur bhai takes us out for food or to some places and talks with the youngsters when they are performing badly so that it does not have any impact on their mindset.

Can you stay relaxed after performing badly?

Certainly I can stay relaxed now even after having a bad day at this point of my career. Whenever I go to the field the only thing I think is that I came here to become successful and if I am afraid, I cannot be successful. I am not saying that I will always be successful but I have to make sure that I am not afraid to try different things in the middle to earn success because if I am afraid of trying in that case chances are very slim that I will be successful.

How do you adapt to white-ball and red-ball cricket as you are playing both the formats?

I think the biggest challenge is to understand the lengths because in different formats, the lengths vary differently. In Tests, which is a good ball might not be the same in white-ball cricket and that is something which takes time to adjust before any series and at that we go for spot bowling or by bowling against a batsman to get that length right. There are instances when it requires some time to get adjusted with it but by the grace of Allah we are managing to do that (adjusting with the lengths) in quick time.

Bangladesh failed as a pace unit in India during the last World Cup. What can be the reason behind it? Did you have a problem with the wickets?

The wickets were good and batting friendly but if you could do well as a team and if we could bowl in partnerships, in that case we could have fared better and could have won one or two matches. I think we cannot win a game on the back of one individual performance and need to have a combined team effort. If we could perform in the same way in all three departments, in that case we could have done better but what happened was that when we could bowl well, we could not bat well and vice versa and that is the reason we could not do well in India.

You worked with different coaches like Donald, Gibson and others. Is it difficult to adapt to their coaching philosophy?

I think all the coaches have nearly the same coaching philosophy. There are times when they give motivation by presenting it differently or say come up with new ideas to develop our game sense but at the end it's just their way of presentation that differs. All of them work with the same goal in mind.

In Bangladesh most of the bowlers are trying to stop the flow of the runs and waiting for the batsman to make the mistake but you are different in this case as you are going for wickets. Is that your role in the team?

I must tell the name of Shanto (Najmul Hossain) in this case as whenever he brings me in the bowling he tells me that I have brought you in and now give me a wicket and there is no problem if you are being hit by the batsmen. This encourages me a lot when the skipper is saying that even if they score runs it is not a problem as long as a wicket can be earned. In that case it will help the team and I try to bowl according to the plan given by the captain.

Does that encourage you to bowl all out?

Certainly it (Najmul backing me to bowl for wickets) does help to bowl aggressively but at the same time you need to bowl according to the wickets and definitely while I come to bowl I have to think about not giving away runs cheaply but more than that I go for wickets.

Your name was in the IPL but the board did not give the NOC for it. How do you feel about the whole incident? Are you hurt?

No. I am young and hopefully in the future, there will be a lot of offers for me. At the moment I am fine with what BCB feels is good for me. We have the World Cup coming up so probably they were focused on managing our workload to keep us fit ahead of the global event. If I do well this year, in that case next year I will get an offer again and if we don't have games in that case I can play in the next IPL because I am hoping that they will release me if it does not conflict with national duties.

Don't you think you could see where you stand by playing in the IPL considering it is the most competitive franchise-based T20 tournament played by international cricketers?

I think in the cricket world every player has the dream of playing in the IPL and certainly I dream of playing in the IPL someday if I get the chance. When I will play I can tell you the feeling because that did not happen so there is no point thinking about or talking about it.

In the coming years you are expected to lead the pace unit. Is this pressure or inspiration?

To be honest a lot of people are saying a lot of things and expecting a lot from me but rather than thinking about all these things I want to focus on my work like what I have done in the past. I will try to do the same this year by following the same pattern that I followed last year. I am learning a new slower ball and hope to come up with it in the next BPL. I am just trying to add one or two variations in my repertoire but apart from that will be focusing on doing the basics and let's see what comes at the end of the year.

Will it be a back of the hand delivery or a different slower ball?

No it's not the back of the hand slower ball. It is just that I will be bowling the same way what I usually do but the ball will be a bit slow and I am sure it will help me to deceive the batsmen. I am trying to develop this skill for a while and hope to execute it in the middle during the upcoming BPL.