Slowing 'em down, Mustafizur style

After three crushing losses against Bangladesh, Australia have finally managed some breathing space with their win in the fourth T20I. And while the five-match series has already been lost, Australia do have a chance to end the tour with a 2-3 margin.

While conditions have been tough for the visitors, Australia have also been at the receiving end of a pretty dominating display from the Bangladesh bowling unit. Leading the way has been Mustafizur Rahman with seven wickets from four matches at an economy of 3.56 and an average of 8.14. With experience behind him now, the pacer is now trying to stick to his strengths - use excessive cutters, even if it comes at the cost of predictability.

"I want to learn new skills ... definitely but for me what's important now is to hone my current skillset as it has made me," he had told Cricbuzz after returning from the Indian Premier League.

Mustafizur now seems to be reaping the benefits of playing to his strengths against Australia as he's consciously banked on slower balls and cutters so far in the series. What makes the pacer even more deceptive is his use of the wrist. To add to that, he's now added a new variation which he has been trying to implement since the last edition of the Dhaka Premier League. Mustafizur, however, stresses that the key to his good run has been to keep things simple and not complicate them.

First Ashton Agar and now Moises Henriques have come out praising Mustafizur variations. "Mustafizur showed how quickly he adapts and I think he bowled 23 or 24 slower balls and didn't bowl any more balls with pace on," Henriques had said after the second game.

"He didn't do that when he played in the IPL ... it's probably mixed up. He summed up the conditions really well, credit to him. His slower ball even on a good wicket is hard to play, let alone on something like that."

Mustafizur has finished with figures of