His action said is to have some similarity with South African Makhaya Ntini, but Nazmul Hossain reminded all of Australian legend Glen McGrath with his accuracy in a foggy January morning in 2009 when his three-wicket burst left Sri Lanka reeling at an unprecedented five for six in the tri-series one-day final in Dhaka. Until then it was unclear to many why the tall, naive former BKSP student was rated so highly by the coaches and selectors. Nazmul, the only second Bangladeshi to make his first-class debut with a Test match after Mashrafee bin Murtaza, the man he replaced in the Bangladesh’s World Cup squad, struggled a lot to find his feet in international cricket for many days since playing his first Test match against India in Chittagong in 2004. Nazmul did not get his second call-up for Test yet, but is almost regular in the one-day side after that magical performance against Sri Lanka in which he claimed 3-30. As a boy there was every chance for him to take up football as his main sport being the son of a footballer – Muktar Hossain, a former Bangladesh Army and Dhaka Wanderers defender, who represented the national side in 1976. But like former wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud, whose father Shamsul Haque Shamsu was a stand-out footballer, Nazmul also chose to become a cricketer, the most popular sport of his generation. After getting admitted to the BKSP he caught the attention of coach Sarwar Imran, who introduced him to club cricket. He was lucky to be picked to play for the BCB X1 against England in 2003 as the national team were on tour to Zimbabwe, the under-19 side were in Pakistan and the A-team were in the West Indies. His impressive bowling in the match helped him get a place in the Under-19 side for the Junior World Cup 2004, held in Bangladesh. He took 18 wickets in seven matches, highest by any Bangladeshi in the tournament, which paved the way for his Test debut. ‘I owe my achievement to all the coaches, who helped me. I am especially grateful to Imran Sir and I will try my level best to fulfil whatever responsibility I am given by the team,’ said Nazmul.
