Shane Warne left the mortal world two and a half years ago. However, the way he made the batters dance with the magic of leg spin is still etched in the minds of many sports lovers. Currently, Afghanistan's Rashid Khan has caught the attention of the cricket world in a crowd of numerous legspinners.
Along with the legspin, Rashid's pair are also responsible for storming down towards the end. In limited overs cricket, he can almost always create a gap in the match. Afghan legspinners are hotcakes in almost all franchise leagues in the world including BPL, IPL, Big Bash. Champion legspinners like Warne-Rashid have built huge fanbases around the world. Bangladesh women's cricket team legspinner Fahima Khatun heard the name of star legs today. Fahima told the media at the BCB media building in Mirpur, 'From the beginning I personally am a big fan of Rashid Khan and Shane Warne. The legspin group we have, the conditions we have, the legspin group I want will lead the way.'
Alok Kapali once gained fame as a legspin all-rounder in Bangladesh. Later Aminul Islam Biblab, Zubair Hossain Likhans came but could not show much leg spin. The legspinner that Bangladesh has been moaning about for so long, Rishad Hossain is trying to make up for that deficiency. Rishad took 14 wickets in the T20 World Cup held in West Indies-USA in June. Which is the highest wicket of any cricketer of Bangladesh in a T20 world cup.
While praising Rishad, Fahima also highlighted a reality in Bangladesh cricket. Where there is a leg-spinner crisis in the Bangladesh men's cricket team, a different picture is seen in women's cricket. Along with Rumana Khatun, Fahima, Swarna Akhtar, Rabeya Khan have been showing velki in leg spin. Fahima said, 'I have seen Rishad Hossain's good performance in the World Cup in a short period of time. I think there are more legspinners in the women's team than in the men's cricket team of Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh women's cricket team last played international cricket at the Women's T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in October. Although the start of the World Cup was won, the Bangladesh team led by Nigra Sultana Jyoti did not advance to the semis after losing consecutive matches. Bangladesh-Ireland three-match ODI series starts tomorrow in Mirpur after the World Cup. Ahead of the series against the Irish, Fahima said today, 'When we won the first match in the World Cup, our hopes rose a lot. I also saw that I played good cricket with England. In that case we had another chance to win the match. After the World Cup, I will say that the series in front of us now is very important. As a team, it seems that our preparation has been good.'
Bangladesh-Ireland will also play three T20Is after three ODIs. All six matches will be played at Mirpur Sherbangla Stadium. However, the criticism about Mirpur's pitch is almost constant. Fahima's words also hinted at something like that. The Bangladesh leg-spinner said, 'Actually see that our Asian continent teams and you also know about our pitch conditions. The games I play on FTP now, I think I play very little on Sporting Wicket. In that case, we are giving importance to that (Sporting wicket). They are also trying to adapt us by playing on that kind of pitch from our board. Because of this maybe a little distance is created. I think I can use the advantage that I will get in home conditions properly.'
