The fascinating transformation of Towhid Hridoy

"Learning from mistakes" is a cliche we've heard so many sportspersons use so many times. It's important for them to identify the blows they can recover from and work hard to improve everyday. In performing art, the margin of error is very narrow and if you aren't good enough, you'll be discarded quickly and sink into oblivion. 

Towhid Hridoy failed to close out a close game which happened to be the final of the last season of the BPL. To his own admission, had he been able to find a boundary in the final over, the game might have turned in their favour. How the "inability to hit a boundary" transformed the 22-year-old as a T20 batter is a fascinating story. He has literally learned from his mistakes.

Prior to this tournament, Hridoy wasn't considered to be an ideal T20 player. In his first T20 tournament in 2020 - the now-scrapped Bangabandhu T20 Cup - he was decent, averaging 27 but the strike-rate was on the lower side. It didn't improve in the next couple of years - 114 in 2021 and 98 in 2022. 

From his Under-19 days, Hridoy was earmarked for greatness in 50-over cricket but T20 cricket remained his Achilles Heel for quite a long time. But there was a reason why Hridoy was one of "Mashrafe's first choices" in the BPL draft. And Hridoy's performance so far in the tournament - 195 runs with a strike-rate of 166.7 in three innings - pretty much sums up how Sylhet have been going about their business in the tournament. 

Sylhet captain Mashrafe backed the youngsters to play their natural game and "let them on their own". And that brought the best out of Hridoy. 

There have been visible changes. The stance has changed, the backlift has become higher to adjust to T20 cricket and the power game has improved significantly which is evident from those big sixes he hit and a lot of them landed in the Mirpur gallery.

Prior to this tournament, Hridoy played majority of his innings at number four and five. In the Sylhet team, Mushfiqur Rahim, the most prolific T20 batter and a BPL legend, scored most of his runs at number four. But the veteran batter sacrificed his favourite position to accommodate Hridoy and Zakir Hasan in the top four. Mashrafe identified Hridoy as a player who can "play according to the situation". 

And Hridoy proved his captain right. In a tough chase where the required run rate was close to 10 against Fortune Barishal, Hridoy took calculative risks to always keep Sylhet in the chase with 55 off 34. Then in the next game they had to chase a moderate target of 150 (7.5 runs per over), he went about nine runs per over to always stay ahead of the rate.

In their fourth game against Dhaka Dominators, they batted first for the first time and with no fixed target, Hridoy played more freely, with more intent and with no fear. He went more than ten runs per over in his brilliant 84 off 46 and Sylhet crossed the 200-run mark.

The right-hander's game against pace was always decent but what ailed him in the last couple of years in T20s was his struggle against spin. But he has certainly worked on that and the result is in front of everyone now. Hridoy, who used to go about a run-a-ball against spin, has struck at high 130s against this type of bowling in these three innings. 

Hridoy is a very wristy player and that's why most of his over-boundaries were on the on side. After their third match, Hridoy said that after the failure last season, he worked on range-hitting and a few shots specifically for this format. He was never really thought to be a T20 number three but the Sylhet think tank gave him the liberty to apply what he has learned over the last few months. 

Hridoy will be absolutely gutted to miss two weeks of cricket with the finger injury he picked up in the last game. But he has definitely shown what he is capable of in this format. 

There are room for improvements. Three innings is not a very big sample size. His power game is a bit leg-sideish. The high backlift suggests he might struggle a little bit to get the bat down in time against full-length balls at high pace. But Towhid Hridoy has proved that he has the spark to be the answer to Bangladesh's T20 woes and you never know, he can very well be a worthy successor of his Sylhet teammate Mushfiqur Rahim in future in the national team.