Like any kid next door in Bangladesh, Taskin Ahmed's cricketing zest was limited to the field close to his Mohammadpur home. He does not have stories to tell where he had to travel miles to attend cricket practice. Rather, he has tales where every evening it was either his father or mother who used to chase Taskin back home so that he could finish the school homework.
Education was the main priority for his family. As a child, he never had any ambition to become a cricketer and it was only a Dhaka-based Under-12 competition which gave Taskin a first taste of competitive cricket.
His height was the main reason behind him growing up as a pace bowler. People found his pace and bounce lethal from an early age and that showed when he injured 17 batsmen in his first-class debut for Dhaka Metropolis in 2011.
Taskin hardly faced any challenge growing up as a cricketer but since 2014, several incidents have made him into a stronger character.
Two years ahead of his Bangladesh debut, Taskin had to deal with a knee injury for around 18 months. He made his international debut in the World Twenty20 in 2014 when he replaced his idol Mashrafe bin Mortaza against Australia. Two months later, the world heard of the young Bangladesh pacer after he took a five-for in his ODI debut against India in Mirpur.
Taskin entered a Bangladesh team in disarray but only saw part of the difficulty as he was not playing Test matches. He was there during the golden phase since the Zimbabwe series in 2014 and into 2015 when they won four ODI series in a row.
But the good times came to an end during this year's World T20 when he was one of two Bangladesh bowlers to get banned for an illegal bowling action.
He said he was broken from inside and to heal him, the team decided to carry him along but this was making things difficult for him. Taskin could not accept the fact that he had to sit in the hotel while his team mates were in the stadium either practising or playing a game.
The desperate situation made him plan an escape. Taskin did not want to face questions of his suspension following his return so after consulting a few senior players, he went on a holiday in Sri Lanka and Maldives.
But that hardly changed things as even today, he is haunted by queries of his comeback to action.
Taskin is currently readying himself for the re-assessment of his bowling action and most likely he will head to an International Cricket Council accredited bowling action review lab before England reach Dhaka in September this year.
The 21-year old from Dhaka has his fingers crossed but his intentions are strong to make a comeback from what he considers is the biggest challenge he faced till date.
He is well backed by his team, family and friends but knows all too well that the road ahead is quite lonely.