Rabbi's long walk to the big league

Eight years after a TV advertisement had sowed the seed in his mind, Kamrul Islam Rabbi's dream of playing for Bangladesh has finally come to fruition. On Sunday, he earned a maiden call-up to the 14-member squad for the first two ODIs against Zimbabwe.

Given Bangladesh's increased reliance on pace bowling, Rabbi has a strong chance of making his international debut in the upcoming series. He and Al-Amin Hossain have replaced the injured Rubel Hossain and the recovering Taskin Ahmed, though both are likely to return for the T20s on November 13 and 15. Still, it is an opening that Rabbi had been working towards for the last several years.

"I have been working hard over the last several, so this call-up makes me very happy," Rabbi said. "I have been playing in the A team for some time now. I am also excited that I can play with Mashrafe [Mortaza] bhai, who is my favourite player. If, God willing, I get an opportunity to play a match, I can play with him."

Rabbi has been picked on the back of strong performances for Bangladesh A on their tour to India in September and in South Africa last month where he took nine wickets in four matches. He was first picked in the Bangladesh A team in 2011, and intermittently, he had some good performances for Barisal Division, one of the weakest first-class teams in the National Cricket League, as well as in the Dhaka Premier League, the domestic one-day competition.

"Whenever pace bowlers from Bangladesh get an opportunity to play on a hard surface, be it at home or abroad, we have done well," Rabbi said. "We usually have a hard time bowling on flat wickets that are more conducive to spinners, so a pace bowler in this country has to go through a lot of hard work."

The advertisement that inspired Rabbi was a pacer-hunt programme that was the rage across Bangladesh in the mid-2000s. It was a moderately successful attempt at finding pace bowlers across the country. In the ad, the current limited-overs captain, Mashrafe Mortaza, is seen to be hallucinating about an aspiring fast bowler reminding him to be serious lest he take Mashrafe's place.

Rabbi said he was never serious about playing cricket in his early days in Barisal before the ad prompted him to sign up for the pacer hunt. He clocked one delivery at 79mph, which was deemed good enough to take him to the final round in BKSP where Sarwar Imran, the coach in charge of the pacer hunt, took an interest in him and placed him in the system for the Dhaka club teams. He was soon picked up by Old DOHS Sports Club, and the Barisal divisional side got wind of a pace bowler from their region that needs to be added to their first-class side.

Rabbi's case, however, is more an exception than the rule. There has been a perennial struggle to find someone to replace Mashrafe whenever he is injured, and to partner him with the new ball when fit. Only in the last 12 months has there been emphasis on pace bowling, particularly in the limited-overs format. Mashrafe's preference for a minimum of three pace bowlers has had a ripple effect, as the selectors now scramble to find talented quicks to replace injured pace bowlers like Rubel and Taskin.

The return of Al-Amin, a result of his performance in South Africa, is another example of the increasing importance given to pace bowling. Al-Amin was a mainstay throughout 2014 before he hit a couple of roadblocks; first, his action was reported that year and soon after he breached the team rules during the World Cup. He was doing well at the international stage, but now has to restart his career and his skills suggest he has the ability.

But the pace bowling pipeline is far from gushing out new talent. First-class and club teams in Bangladesh hardly ever use a pace bowler optimally; there are lower-level clubs in the Dhaka leagues that don't play a genuine pace bowler at all, factoring in the slow pitches.

Rabbi is one of the few pace bowlers who gets to bowl long spells mainly because of his variations with the old ball. He has impressed with his ability to rev up the pace, use the yorker well and put enough work on the ball with his wrist and fingers.

The grind of domestic cricket has taken him through the long road, sometimes dark with the hopelessness that can easily engulf a professional cricketer so entrenched in the erratic structure. Rabbi has stuck it out despite early concerns from his parents about a career in cricket. He was good in science and once even said he would be a forest officer if he wasn't into cricket.

Now it is time to look forward and Rabbi, who possesses a strong action, will make for an interesting choice if he is picked in the playing XI against Zimbabwe. His big advantage is that he is a product of one of the toughest environments that a pace bowler can go through.

"Habibul Bashar sir told me in South Africa recently that international cricket is all about playing to your strength," Rabbi said. "He said that since what I have been doing all this time has worked for me, I should not try anything different in international cricket. I know my strength and I think I will try to stick to his advice as much as possible," said Rabbi.