Debutant Mosaddek lays down a marker

Mosaddek Hossain is no stranger to pressure, and not the kind that comes out of a cricket match.

Since his first-class debut in 2013, he has played for Abahani Limited, the most successful club in Bangladesh history. The BCB's most influential directors come from their stables and they don't like losing. That brings pressure wholly different to having to run down a big total, or weather a top spell, or keep pace with a rapidly climbing asking-rate.

Yet it is in this environment that Mosaddek thrived, helping his team avoid relegation in his first season as a professional cricketer and making them Premier Division champions in 2016. He is nothing like the usual young Bangladeshi batsman. Not flashy. Not emotional. Just calm and calculated. Like a robot. It is for this reason Tamim Iqbal called Mossadek mature beyond his years.

So how was he going to handle making his Test debut after replacing a senior player like Mahmudullah, who also hails from the town of Mymensingh and who was dropped for the first time in his career? A failure might not only hamper his career, it might make the higher-ups who backed him look bad.

The first ball he faced was a peach. Suranga Lakmal pitched it on a length and darted it past his outside edge as if it were a puppet. Had Mosaddek gone at it with harder hands, he might have been out for a duck. Everyone talks about luck in this game and it seemed this 21-year-old certainly had some. He then spent his first half hour as a Test batsman learning to avoid the blatant threat of a fast bowler's bouncers and the subtle traps laid by a master left-arm spinner.

Eventually, it was off Rangana Herath that Mosaddek got his first boundary. A classic, inside-out cover drive for four. It wasn't quite Mohammad Ashraful taking on Muttiah Muralitharan in 2001 and later boasting that the man who would go on to take 800 Test wickets was like anyone else he faced in the Dhaka nets. But it was something.

The next challenge was batting with Shakib while the latter was in the nineties. The period when a senior player can essentially do whatever he wanted but the rookie's job - his only job - was to rotate the strike while making sure he didn't run his partner out. Mosaddek walked the tight rope perfectly.

The milestone passed and it was time to let loose a bit. So in the 94th over, when he was getting into position to avoid the short ball, he realised there wasn't too much bounce in the pitch and decided to pull it away. Bangladesh went into the lead with that four.

Most of Mosaddek's runs came on the off side. His shots were crisp, his ability to pick the gaps was excellent and the fact that his style was all his own made watching him all the more delectable.

"I am no one to judge his standard or quality but I think that he has a big future in Bangladesh cricket," Shakib said. "If you talk about his one-day or his international career - he has made a very good start. I would of course want that he continues as much as possible for the country.

"Since I have batted with him in domestic cricket, it didn't seem like we were batting together for the first time today. So whenever we bat together we are very comfortable with each other. We don't even have to call when taking a run.

"It is not because we have played together for long - I have only played five or six matches with him in the Premier Division and a few games in BPL - but there is a good understanding. His approach is appropriate for international cricket."

That is high praise from one of Bangladesh's greatest cricketers. Mosaddek should feel happy about it, but he can't get carried away. His 75 on debut showed promise but one innings does not make a good batsman. His technique and temperament will be tested again and again on the world stage - possibly even as soon as the second innings of the Colombo Test.

What's going in his favour is a giant appetite for long-form cricket. In a country that prioritises the limited-overs game, Mosaddek struck seven centuries between February 2015 and March 2016, including scores of 250, 282 and 200 not out. He has all the ingredients for success. Can he mix them in just the right way?