Who is Abul Hasan?

A new name was introduced to world cricket on Wednesday, 21^st November, 2012. The name is that of a Bangladeshi bowler who achieved a remarkable feat of notching up a century while batting at No.10 against a quality West Indies attack, comprising of Fidel Edwards, the mystery spinner Sunil Narine and the resurgent Tino Best. He is none other than Abul Hasan.

Bangladesh were tottering at 193/5, until they unveiled their star in the making. The right-arm seamer or should I say a left-handed batsman came in to rescue their ship and went to achieve an unbeaten 172 run stand with the recognized batsman Mahmudullah and was surprisingly the dominant of the two. Bangladesh who found themselves in a strong position at 365/8 at stumps on Day-1, were bundled out for 387 this morning.

The 20-year-old Hasan on his way to a mammoth 100, mammoth considering it was scored by a No.10, scored 13 boundaries and three sixes on his way. He now became only the 4^th batsman in the history of the game to achieve the incredible feat of a 100 by a No.10.

His stand with Mahmudullah was also nearing an entry in the record books, but just missed the bus by 12 runs . The current record for the highest 9^th wicket partnership held by the South African pair of Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox still stands. The Englishman WW Read scored 117 against Australia at the Oval in 1884. Another 18 runs and Hasan would have been through to another milestone, but failed, falling 4 runs short, but is now the second highest scorer at No.10, overtaking Symcox’s 108.

Abul talked how his initial plan was to just hang in there and let Mahmudullah do the scoring, but eventually when he found the middle of his bat, found his confidence, he started thinking of notching up some runs. The moment he got past 70 was the time when he started entertaining the thoughts of a ton.

Having said that, one would be interested in Hasan’s biography so far and people all around would find it intriguing.

Hasan has so far played only 6 first class games, this being his 7^th. He has so far batted in 8 innings, scoring a decent 174 at an average of 21.75. He also has a half century to his name, 61, which was also his highest score. This was his 9^th innings and having scored a 113, his average has now gone upto 31.89, with a century to his credit.

He has also featured in 14 T20s in total, both International and domestic, out of which, 4 have been for Bangladesh and his highest score has been 9 in a total of 4 innings, 1 of which is International; the one in which he scored that 9.

He also featured in 12 List A games, batting in all 12 innings, totaling 90 at an average of 9 (since, he was not out on 2 occasions), his highest score being 37.

Oh! I forgot he’s a bowler. Now moving to his bowling statistics,

In his 6 first class games, he has taken just 8 wickets, his best bowling figures being 2/35.

In the 14 T20s he has played, of which 4 are international, he has bowled a total of 40 overs, managing 11 scalps; 11 overs and 2 wickets have been in his 4 International T20s.

His List A career also doesn’t have anything impressive, with 12 wickets in 12 games.

Looking at the averages, economy rates and Strike rates of Hasan, he seems to be one who likes to score freely and allows the opposition the same.

His economy in T20 is over 10. He averages 43.37 in First Class cricket and a little over 38 in T20s.

The lad is young and must not get carries away with his knock.

We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.