Imagine this: Your life isn’t going well, and you are struggling to catch a break. Then comes a person who is selling lottery tickets, you end up buying it to make ends meet, and within the span of several months, you are one of the richest people in your area.
Najmul Hossain Shanto’s story isn’t too different.
2018: 3 matches, 20 runs, 6.66 average
2020: 2 matches, 35 runs, 17.50 average
2021: 3 matches, 38 runs, 12.66 average
2022: 7 matches, 117 runs, 16.71 average
And then, Najmul bought that lottery ticket, and voila.
Until 2023, the 25-year-old Najmul wasn’t a regular feature of the Bangladeshi setup, not even when several of their stars were rested. Not even when a host of them were injured. But then something clicked. Something that clicked so hard that now visualising a Bangladeshi batting unit without the southpaw seems like a blunder.
Before the turn of the year, the left-hander had eight single-digit scores in ODI cricket, two of which were ducks. Even when he got starts, Najmul never converted them into meaningful scores – with 38 – his highest score in ODI cricket till the start of 2023. It wasn’t like he was slotted in the middle-order.
Prior to this transformation, Najmul either opened or batted in the top three in 15 ODIs. It wasn’t that he faced only top-quality bowling units. Four of those games came against Zimbabwe, six came against West Indies, three against India and two against Afghanistan. No one could have better opponents to start an international career.
But Najmul absolutely tanked. Across 15 ODIs, he averaged 14, his strike rate read 60.9. Forget that, he had only scored 24 boundaries in his ODI career by then. Wait, hang on. That’s only part of the embarrassment.
Hear me out. Najmul was by far the worst top-order batter in the last six years before the start of 2023, with just a filter of a minimum of 15 innings. It wasn’t even by a close margin, there was a vivid difference of +3.08 between the second-worst batter (Darren Bravo) and him.
Those numbers generally mean you never return to play international cricket again.
****
“Self-doubt dents one’s confidence,” Najmul said this way back in 2021.
Najmul’s confidence almost didn’t exist at one point. It had hit an all-time low, with trolls mercilessly sucking the life out of him.
But remember that lottery ticket.
It hit the jackpot only in 2023, and it hit the jackpot at a time when Najmul needed it the most.
Bangladesh’s search for No.3 was underway yet again, and a shuffle at the top order was imminent despite a glorious series win over India. And when they decided to look beyond Mahmudullah in the middle-order, they had to take a punt with the left-hander at No.3.
It was a punt. A punt that later turned out to be Midas’s touch. On a slow and sluggish surface in Mirpur, where perhaps run-scoring was close to taking a Ferrari out for a ride in Bangalore’s Silk board, Najmul stood out with a well-timed 58. He then struck a 53 in the third ODI.
If that wasn’t enough, he carried his form in the three-match T20I series against England, with scores of 51, 46* and 47*, showing the world that perhaps he wasn’t done. He was only getting started.
They say cricket is all about confidence; in Najmul’s case, it was on point. When his confidence was at an all-time low, he looked out of place, and when his confidence was booming, there wasn’t any cricketer silkier than him. But then came a dip, a stretch that perhaps made him grounded – 14, 2*, 4, 0, 4.
In Chelmsford, everything changed. It kick-started a chain reaction that would go on to define Bangladesh’s batting crux. A scintillating 117 that was later followed with twin centuries – 146 and 124 – against Afghanistan in Mirpur.
From being nowhere, suddenly, the left-hander found himself as one of the mainstays in the Tigers’ dressing room across formats. With just months left for the ODI World Cup, all that was left was for him to perform in the Asia Cup – the dress rehearsal for the premier ODI tournament.
****
When Najmul walked out to bat at 4/1 against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, he was facing the heat, literally and figuratively.
Sri Lanka isn’t an easy place to play cricket. In more than one, it is pretty similar to the surfaces on offer in Bangladesh but only better for batters. It is perhaps that which would have given the left-hander the utmost confidence.
But when wickets at the other end fall like a pack of cards, even the most confident of personnel could take a hit. Najmul, though, was built differently. Not only did he tackle one of Sri Lanka’s tricky bowlers, Maheesh Theekshana, but he also ensured that the other tricky customer, Matheesha Pathirana, was handled with as much care.
On an afternoon when the entire Bangladesh batting unit combined only made 67, there was Najmul, who, in the most calm and composed fashions, made an 89, which was a statement more than anything.
On Sunday (September 3), all that Najmul did was carry forward the momentum. His first scoring run on the day was a four. And before one could realise, he was on 17 off 15, with three boundaries. Maybe Afghanistan made a grave mistake by not introducing Rashid Khan earlier, maybe it wouldn’t have made much difference on the day.
But Najmul kept taking his chances and constructed an innings that he will likely remember for the longest time. Even the shot to get to his half-century was a stylish pick-up pull against Fazalhaq Farooqi. When Rashid, one of the world’s best spinners, if not the best, erred ever-so-slightly in his length, the left-hander was there to punish him.
It was only Najmul’s second ODI century on paper, but it was a century that possibly sealed a perfect comeback for Najmul. Only three top-order batters – Pathum Nissanka, Brandon King and Babar Azam – have scored more runs than the Bangladeshi left-hander (513 runs) in 2023.
It isn’t just a century, it perhaps is a statement. A statement that incidentally only kicked off against Afghanisation. Mehidy Hasan Miraz might have won the Player of the Match and the accolades, but if not for the crisis man, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Bangladesh might have been staring at the grim wall.
