A Bangladesh Under-19 graduate, Yasir Ali Rabbi is one of the true emerging players from the Bangladesh Premier League. He was born 11 days before Sri Lanka lifted the ICC World Cup in 1996 and unlike many, he didn’t watch cricketers like Wasim Akram or Steve Waugh growing up. He was a toddler when Bangladesh played their first World Cup in 1999.
While speaking to Dhaka Tribune yesterday, the 19-year-old said he is glad to be playing alongside his childhood idol Tamim Iqbal. Captain of the Chittagong Vikings, Tamim made a strong impression on the lad from his starting days as Rabbi says, “I always wanted to bat like him.”
Rabbi’s interest in cricket is mainly due to his father who used to take him to the field near their house to play with a tennis ball. “When I was four (years old), my dad used to take me to the Parade ground beside the Chittagong College to play with a tennis ball..slowly I started playing.
“Later, when I used to go to the field for practice, I watched Tamim bhai batting in the nets, and a hard-hitting batsman at that, and I always wanted to bat like him.”
He continued, “I watched him play in the U19s, and then he entered the national team. To be honest I always wanted to bat like him from childhood. I wanted to score runs quickly like him.”
What could be better for the teenager who made his Twenty20 debut under the guidance of his idol and to top that, he scored 63 and was involved in a 79-run partnership with Tamim. With 14 first-class and 13 List A matches in the bag, the Vikings are a new horizon for Rabbi who had never played a T20 before. Rabbi, who made 22 and 14 in the other two matches he played in the BPL so far, is also a good fielder, despite his heavy build.
Rabbi’s talent however, was spotted long ago by the Chittagong division when they handed him a first-class debut through the National Cricket League when he was 16. Playing with the big boys in the longer version meant Rabbi was more than capable of representing the age-level team as he soon became a regular member of the U-17, followed by the U-19 team.
However, fitness became an issue for Rabbi but the stocky kid worked hard and came back strongly. “Following the U19 series in Sri Lanka in 2013, I was left out for the England series due to fitness reasons. I was overweight and faced problems in finishing the fitness tasks. But thanks to the Almighty, I was able to get back my place in September the same year for the series against the West Indies.
“Since that time, my head coach (of that time) Richard McInnes, trainer Tushar and Stuart Karppinen never complained with regards to my fitness and I successfully played in the 2014 World Cup later.”
After scoring four fifties for Chittagong in the NCL earlier this year, Rabbi credited Tamim and Akram Khan for making him realise his prospect and including him in the Vikings squad.
“I cannot compare BPL with the domestic leagues. In BPL we get so many international players to play with, the atmosphere, the environment, the coverage..everything is better compared to the domestic leagues. For instance, we have Saeed Ajmal, Kamran Akmal while there is Brendan Taylor in another team, this does not happen in the leagues.”
He was honest in admitting that he was very nervous before the first match as he is not used to playing in front of a big crowd. “People will talk about my game, they will see me, I was nervous how would I do in the middle. I was scared to be frank.
“Teammates, coaching staffs, management support me a lot. They told me not to worry about all this and always guide me.”