Jubair Hossain became Bangladesh's first specialist legspinner to play Tests, when he made his debut against Zimbabwe in October 2014. By his ninth delivery, he had taken his first wicket - that too of Brendan Taylor. He finished with 11 wickets in the series, including a five-wicket haul in the second Test in Khulna.

He made his ODI debut in the corresponding ODI series and when the Faruque Ahmed-led national selectors didn't pick him for the 2015 World Cup, coach Chandika Hathurusingha said publicly that he would have preferred having Jubair in Australian conditions.

Thus began the tug-of-war between Faruque and Hathurusingha that dragged for more than a year, with the BCB ultimately changing the selection panel and Faruque resigning from his post. Jubair had nothing to do with all these controversies and felt hard done by to be put in the middle of such a high-profile battle.

He was essentially part of the larger debate within Bangladesh cricket about the value of legspin. The skill is highly under-rated in the country, with most domestic teams shunning the legspinner and forcing them to become batting allrounders or turn solely to batting.

But Jubair stuck to his bowling, and impressed everyone during Bangladesh's long training camp in 2014, where he was essentially a net bowler, after he had returned from that year's Under-19 World Cup. Hathurusingha was so taken by Jubair that when Sohag Gazi was suspended for his action by the ICC midway through their West Indies tour, he was discussed as a replacement despite not having played a single first-class game.

When India went over to play a one-off Test in Fatullah in 2015, Jubair was brought back into the side. In the rain-affected game, he picked up Virat Kohli's wicket with a googly. He was starting to be treated as a Test specialist. At the same time, though, his Dhaka Premier League club - Abahani Limited - stopped picking up, hastening a slide in confidence.

It culminated in his poor T20I debut against Zimbabwe in 2015, where he bowled one delivery so short that it nearly bounced twice before reaching Malcolm Waller who took his first over in the format - which happened to be his T20 debut at any level - for 17 runs.

He didn't get a BPL contract in 2015, and slid behind almost every spinner by 2017, when he was also ignored from the domestic first-class XIs. Bangladesh had to wait 14 years for its first Test legspinner, but it seemed that within a few years it was also going to lose the only one around.
Mohammad Isam