IPL 2021: Playing in IPL helps to perform at international level, says Mustafizur Rahman

Mustafizur claimed seven wickets in Bangladesh's 4-1 T20I series win over Australia.

Mustafizur Rahman is one of the only two cricketers from Bangladesh to be playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and he believes that a good performance in the UAE-leg of the tournament would give him confidence ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup. 

The left-arm pacer looked in great form against Australia and claimed 7 wickets at an impressive economy of 3.53 in the recently concluded five-match T20I series. 

The speedster said that he was keen to continue the good form. 

"Naturally (I am confident) for the upcoming series against New Zealand, IPL and T20 WC because I am in a good rhythm now and hope to carry on with it. What I feel is that playing in the IPL helps to perform at the international level because you are playing against the best there and I feel that if you can do well there (IPL) than international cricket, it becomes much easier,” Mustafizur Rahman told Cricbuzz. 

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"World's best players compete in this tournament and if you are successful, certainly it will raise your confidence. And I am sure that will be the case with me because if I do well in IPL then certainly I will be carrying loads of confidence going into the World Cup," he said.

Mustafizur was going through a low in his career prior to IPL 2021, but looked good in the tournament and picked eight wickets in seven matches for Rajasthan Royals. The tournament came to an abrupt halt due to COVID-19 cases inside bio-bubbles of several teams. 

He credited Rajasthan Royals’ coaching staff for instilling confidence in him, especially batting coach Sid Lahiri. 

"There was a coach called Sid Lahiri and he helped me a lot in Rajasthan's camps. In fact, not only him but everyone spoke small good things and it felt very good.

Actually, I am always eager to learn and some small advice like what I need to do in certain situations can help me analyse things better when I am in the middle," he said.

The 25-year old further spoke about his performance against Australia and said that he didn't try many things and stuck to the basics. 

"It was not a wicket where you can experiment a lot and that is the reason I did not try too many things and just tried to follow the basics," he said. 

Mustafizur added that he was working on his back-of-the-hand slower balls

"I need to work on my back hand slower (delivery). I have got control on it reasonably but need to sharpen it more," he said.

(With Cricbuzz inputs)