Arafat Sunny

Arafat Sunny is the classic Bangladeshi left-arm spinner, bred on limited-overs cricket. He is accurate, and uses the combination of shoulder, arm and wrist to flummox the batsman. He usually doesn't offer the batsman much room outside off stump, forcing him to search for runs on the leg side, which offers the opportunity for a return catch or one to cover or a stumping.

He has all the attributes of a limited-overs bowler, yet he has been playing first-class and club cricket from the 2001-02 season after being part of Bangladesh's Under-15 side in 2000. If his birth records are correct, Sunny made his first-class debut for Dhaka Division at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 9 days. He has continued to bowl more and more over the years, always getting a decent deal in the Dhaka Premier League and mostly ending the season among the top ten wicket-takers. In first-class cricket he had one missed season, 2010-11, but took 50 wickets in the next season to make sure nobody forgot about him.

Born in Amin Bazar in the outskirts of Dhaka, Sunny started training in the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium's indoor facilities, being chaperoned by his mother, who even went to his early first-class and club matches. Sunny is fond of pigeons and had several at the roof of his home, but when he was chosen to play for Bangladesh in 2014, he had to let the birds go. He took 16 wickets at an average of 17.81 and took two back-to-back four-wicket hauls against Zimbabwe, which won him a place in the 2015 World Cup squad.
Mohammad Isam