Mehedi bears heavy workload with a five-wicket smile

The simplicity of Mehedi Hasan's trundle, gather and release was only matched by his disarming smile at the end of his first day in Test cricket. Otherwise, England found him a tough proposition with his five-wicket haul, the youngest among the seven Bangladeshi bowlers to do so on debut.

This smile was also present at this year's Under-19 World Cup in which Mehedi finished as the player of the tournament and led Bangladesh to the semi-finals for the first time.

He managed the unusually high pressure of expectation on his team impressively and good-naturedly. On the day before the tournament started at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, he took one look at the journalist who asked him about pressure.

"What you are saying about pressure, I am hearing this for the first time," he said, beaming as he did so.

He was a key performer throughout those three weeks, and made sure that after his team lost to West Indies in the semi-final, he picked up his disappointed team-mates and walked back to the dressing room in Mirpur with head held high amid a standing ovation. It was just the U-19 World Cup but Mehedi understood the stakes, and took on the challenges happily.

Eight months later, the smile has remained, and there were many more reasons for it. There was the cherished debut, the big turn he managed to get the first wicket, the straighter delivery that got him his fifth, and the satisfaction of bowling accurately for 33 overs. The sight of his angled seam pitching on the straw-coloured surface repeatedly was as encouraging for all the spinners in this game as it was for a Bangladesh team which is still looking for a foil for Shakib Al Hasan.

Mehedi bowled the most overs by a Bangladeshi bowler on his first day in Test cricket, beating Sohag Gazi's 32 overs against West Indies in 2012. But he still had the energy to describe two of his wickets at the press conference.

He said that the Ben Duckett wicket, which pitched on leg stump, spun and hit the off stump in the tenth over of the morning, came when he quickly realised that the large turn he was getting from the first over was more useful if it was directed at the stumps. But he said that, since even he didn't know how the ball went straight, the wicket of Jonny Bairstow to complete his five-for was "special"..

"I am never going to forget this day," Mehedi said. "I got a five-wicket haul on my Test debut. It is also a matter of fortune that I got those against England. I thank the Almighty Allah, and I am indebted to everyone's prayers.

"I got massive turn off my first delivery but Mushfiq bhai repeatedly told me that I should bowl at the stumps, so that I have chance to get leg-before or hit the stumps. I was bowling outside the off-stump in my first over, which they were leaving easily. From my second or third over, I realised that I will be successful if I bowl stump to stump. I loved all my wickets but the fifth one was special. It went straight. Neither I nor the batsman understood what was happening."

Bowling one-third of the day's overs was, according to Mehedi, a matter of habit. Doing it a number of times in domestic cricket for Khulna Division made sure that when Mushfiqur Rahim kept throwing him the ball, he maintained his discipline.

Since his first-class debut, he has been part of the Khulna spin attack, which is led by the domestic giant Abdur Razzak. They usually bowl for long periods on tandem, at times 30-odd overs from each end.

"We are slaves to a habit. I learned bowling long spells from domestic first-class cricket. I can bowl for 30 to 35 overs per day. It helped me today. [Abdur Razzak] Raj bhai, our Khulna Division captain, guided me in the NCL. I spoke to him after I got chance in the national team.

"He told me to repeat what I did well in the NCL, to bowl at one spot for 30 to 35 overs. No need for variations. He told me that batsmen will have a hard time dealing with my bowling if I am accurate," said Mehedi, who added that taking the new ball was also something he had been doing since his Under-15 days.

Mehedi though said that he was aiming for a middle-of-the-road performance on his international debut, so he exceeded his own and the team management's expectations. "I never really thought I would get five wickets. I just wanted to do something for the team, and get settled in this level.

"I thought I would take a couple of wickets, score 30 odd runs; bit of an average performance on debut. The team management told me that they don't expect much from me."

Over the last eight months, during which he has handled the unwanted limelight during the U-19 World Cup, returned to the obscurity of domestic cricket and then climbed into the cauldron of Test cricket, Mehedi has handled success and mediocrity even-handedly.

The next test of this ability will be the second morning of this Test, when he has to help Bangladesh bowl out England below 300.