The mystery behind unplayable Fizz

Mustafizur Rahman (The Fizz) is probably the most discussed cricketer in world right now. The young Bangladeshi left arm pacer has been terrorizing batsmen all over the world with his mystery bowling since his international debut last year against Pakistan. The Fizz has already taken 53 wickets playing just 39 T20 matches with economy of 6.28 but he is most effective when it comes to 50 over games where he has taken 26 wickets in just 9 ODI matches with economy of 4.26.

The stats clearly shows that batsmen are struggling to bat against Mustafiz. The only way to survive Fiz is to play defensively and let the over pass but in limited over games it is much like pressing the self - destruction button. It might take a long time for batsmen to finally figure out the right way to play him but now all they can do is play defensive and capitalize in someone else's over or gamble and attack.
Initially what made Fuzzy unplayable is that he can bowl multiple variation deliveries with minimum change in his action. One of his most deadly bowl is the medium pace off cutter which pitches just outside leg stump for right-handed batsman and turns quickly in towards the middle and off stump. This delivery is really hard to bat against, imagine left-arm off spinner turning the ball at the speed of 128 kmps! The reason Mustafiz can get so much purchase from the pitch is his flexible wrist which allows him to revolve the ball while releasing the delivery. But what makes him lethal is his bulls eye, toe crushing yorker delivery which pitches immediately under the bat, the batsman facing the delivery has no other option than defend it. Mustafizur had used his yorkers a lot in the death overs of his IPL matches restricting opponent teams to make most of the slog overs.

What actually makes it hard to face the Fizz is not his trademark off - cutters or toe crushing yorkers, it's his cricketing mind. Mustafizur knows his strengths and uses them so wisely that he is able to toy with the batsman. He knows how to mix up his variations with his stock balls and most importantly he is a calm head, he can hold his nerves even in the most nerve wrecking moments of the game. This is what made him so successful today.

The Fizz has become an headache for batsmen all around the world and is surely a gift for cricket world and messiah of Bangladesh cricket. A lot is expected from this youngster, it will be interesting to see how he will live up to the expectations all around him but for now all we can do as audience is just sit back and watch the Fizz doing his magic!