Rubel Hossain

Rubel Hossain is one of the finest from Bangladesh’s fast-bowling alley. A right-arm pacer with a slingy action, earned him the nickname “Bangladeshi Malinga”. 

He went viral on social media during the 2011 World Cup after his verbal spat with Virat Kohli. 

Rubel burst onto Bangladeshi domestic scenes in a pacer hunt program where he didn’t fail to impress with his sheer pace. 

The pacer right away got picked for the National Cricket League in 2007 and then played the U-19 World Cup in 2008. 

The pacer made his international debut in 2009 during a Tri-Nation tournament. He got his ODI cap against Sri Lanka, at Dhaka, and didn’t allow his nerves to get the better of him. He tested the Lankans with short-balls and ended with 4 for 33 on debut. 

The nippy pacer got included in Bangladesh’s squad for the 2009 World T20 and there he got to showcase his prominence against India and Ireland. A couple of months later, Rubel made his debut in the longest format against the West Indies. He made an immediate impact and flourished as the one-change bowler in his national team. 

The emergence of Rubel could not hold him from playing in the 2011 World Cup, where he scalped 5 wickets in his 6 outings. The pacer had an average tournament and was also involved in a verbal spat with Virat Kohli during the opening match held at Dhaka. Fast-forward to 2015, both the cricketers were up against each other in the quarter-final game of the World Cup. Rubel made Kohli edged down to the keeper and the aggressive-pacer was on cloud-nine but the joy didn’t last long as Bangladesh was KOed by Indians in their maiden ICC knockout appearance. 

Rubel had a tough road down to the 2015 ICC event. He was jailed after making false marriage promises to an actress. The pacer played the World Cup on bail and emerged to be the backbone of the Bangladeshi pace battery. He played a vital role in what the world says was the “biggest upset”. The Tigers destroyed the England Lions and Rubel was the main assassinator. He took four wickets in the match, including Ian Bell and Eion Morgan, before finishing the game by knocking Stuart Broad and James Anderson off.  

In 2016, the controversial but talented Rubel claimed to invent a slower ball named “butterfly”, where the ball doesn’t rotate in the air but just floats like a butterfly. Though, he was out of Bangladesh’s set up in that season. Rubel made a comeback in the 2017 Champions Trophy when the likes of Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman got injured. 

Since then, Rubel Hossain has been playing all formats and also got to be part of the 2019 World Cup squad. With so many injury scars to Mustafizur and the inconsistency department handled by Taskin Ahmed and Al-Amin Hossain, Rubel can redeem himself and become a regular in Bangladesh setup to prolong his career. 

(As of March 2021)