Jahurul Islam

Wicketkeeper-batter Jahurul Islam was one of the architects of Rajshahi Division's four successive National Cricket League wins from 2008 to 2012. Solid domestic numbers got him his Bangladesh call-up in 2010, and he debuted in all three formats between March and June that year, but lasted only till 2013, making only 24 appearances for Bangladesh.

Jahurul's only international fifty came in Bangladesh's ODI win against India in the 2012 Asia Cup, a match remembered mainly because Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th hundred in international cricket in the same game. It's often forgotten that Bangladesh won the game. Jahurul and Tamim Iqbal added 113 runs for the second wicket that day to lay the foundation for the successful 290-run chase in Dhaka. Two years before that, Jahurul's 83-run third-wicket stand with Imrul Kayes was instrumental in Bangladesh's maiden ODI win against England in Bristol.

He played his last international match in 2013, a T20I against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, where he was out for a first-ball duck. The selectors briefly considered him in 2019 when a 35-man training squad was assembled, but that was it for Jahurul at the national level.

Jahurul, who has a masters degree from Rajshahi University, played arguably his best cricket for his division. He averaged 48.96 in those four seasons of glory, and scored 965 runs in 2009-10, which paved the way for his international call-up where he replaced the just-retired Raqibul Hasan in the home Test series against England. That record of 965 runs was the most in an NCL season until Litton Das broke the four-figure barrier in 2015.
By Mohammad Isam