Towhid Hridoy

Towhid Hridoy could be the next big batting mainstay for Bangladesh. His 918 runs across formats in 2023, his first year in international cricket, gave the team management a strong option, especially amid a long overall batting struggle from the rest of the line-up in the same period.

Hridoy plays with flowing strokeplay, particularly his aerial shots over the covers and his pulls and flicks with dazzling wrist work. By the time he had played over 50 international games (ODIs and T20Is), Hridoy had played only 14 first-class matches, looking set to have mostly a white-ball future.

Hridoy's 92 on ODI debut against Ireland was the highest score for a Bangladesh batter making his debut in the format (at the time). He had already struck seven fifties in his first 30 ODIs, while also maintaining a strike rate of over 130 in his first two T20I seasons. He has already developed a six-hitting trait that's rare among Bangladesh batters.

Hridoy left his hometown Bogra after a coach had convinced him to start training at an academy in Dhaka. It turned out to be a scam, with a teenaged Hridoy left empty-handed in a big city. Khaled Mahmud, the former Bangladesh captain, spotted him in another training camp, from where he picked Hridoy for age-group teams.

Hridoy was part of the Bangladesh Under-19 World Cup-winning side in 2020, having already played in the previous edition in New Zealand. He, however, had a terrible time in the BPL in 2022, capped off by his inability to hit the winning runs for Fortune Barishal against Comilla Victorians, when his team needed three to win off the final ball to lift the title.

He followed it up with better training methods, which paid off with a 403-run season in 2023. It caught everyone's attention, including the national selectors. Hridoy had an even better BPL season in 2024, scoring 462 runs, the second-highest, at a strike rate of nearly 150, for Comilla Victorians.

Mohammad Isam