Rubel Hossain

Mohammad Rubel Hossain (Bengali: মোহাম্মদ রুবেল হোসেন born 1 January 1990) is a Bangladeshi cricketer. Rubel made his international debut in January 2009 aged only 19.^[1] He has the highest bowling average of any pace bowler to have bowled at least 2,000 deliveries in Test cricket.^[2] He is a quick bowler with a slingy action similar to Lasith Malinga's.^[3] Hossain announced his retirement from Test cricket on 19 September 2022.^[4]

Rubel Hossain

Rubel Hossain in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Mohammad Rubel Hossain
Born	(1990-01-01) 1 January 1990 (age 35) Bagerhat, Khulna, Bangladesh
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right arm fast
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	Bangladesh (2009–2021)
Test debut (cap 56)	9 July 2009 v West Indies
Last Test	7 February 2020 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 95)	14 January 2009 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	26 March 2021 v New Zealand
ODI shirt no.	34
T20I debut (cap 23)	6 June 2009 v India
Last T20I	1 April 2021 v New Zealand
T20I shirt no.	34
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2007/08–present	Chittagong Division
2012	Chittagong Kings
2015	Sylhet Super Stars
2016–2017	Rangpur Riders
2018/19	Dhaka Dynamites
2019/20	Chattogram Challengers
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI T20I FC Matches 27 104 28 60 Runs scored 265 144 20 555 Batting average 9.46 4.96 4.00 9.25 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 Top score 45* 17 8* 45* Balls bowled 4,223 4,678 579 8,141 Wickets 36 129 28 97 Bowling average 76.77 34.31 32.57 54.03 5 wickets in innings 1 1 0 4 10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0 Best bowling 5/166 6/26 3/31 7/51 Catches/stumpings 11/– 20/– 1/– 18/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 1 April 2021
Medal record Representing  Bangladesh Men's Cricket Asian Games 2014 Incheon Team

Early and domestic career

Hossain's first-class debut was for Chittagong Division in 2007, where he picked up one wicket for one hundred and thirty seven runs (1/137) against Khulna Division. After a string of good performances in the National Cricket League, he was selected to play for the Bangladesh Under-19 team, and soon after, the Bangladesh A team.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board in 2012 founded the six-team Bangladesh Premier League, a twenty20 tournament to be held in February that year.^[5] An auction was held for teams to buy players,^[6] and Hossain was bought by the Sylhet Royals for $70,000.^[7] In October 2018, he was named in the squad for the Dhaka Dynamites team, following the draft for the 2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League.^[8] In November 2019, he was selected to play for the Chattogram Challengers in the 2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League.^[9]

Hossain innovated a technique of delivery named 'Butterfly'.^[10]

International career

Hossain was named in the One Day International squad for the tri-series with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and made his debut in the third game of the round-robin stage, a game Bangladesh needed to win to progress to the final. He cleaned up the middle-order and tail-enders with a 4-wicket haul in 5.3 overs. He also played in the tri-series final, where he had a poor end to the game, but retained his place for the three ODI series against Zimbabwe soon after. More good performances led to him being included in the Test squad to face the West Indies for the first time. He made his debut at Arnos Vale, and took three wickets in West Indies' first innings, and also formed a 31-run and 10th wicket partnership with Shahadat Hossain in Bangladesh's first innings.^[11] Hossain also featured in two Twenty20 matches at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20.

His best ODI figure was of six wickets for twenty six runs (6/26) vs New Zealand at Mirpur, where he also took a hat-trick and was nominated to be one of the best ODI bowling performance of the year 2013 by ESPNcricinfo.^[12]

He consistently bowled around 145 km/h in the 2015 Cricket World Cup.^[13]

In April 2018, Hossain was one of ten cricketers to be awarded a central contract by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) ahead of the 2018 season.^[14] In April 2019, he was named in Bangladesh's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.^[15][16] In September 2021, he was named as one of the two reserve players in Bangladesh's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.^[17] On 26 October 2021, he was added to Bangladesh's main squad for the tournament, after Mohammad Saifuddin was ruled out due to a back injury.^[18]

Controversies

Bangladeshi police arrested Hossain after a Bangladeshi actress named Naznin Akter Happy filed rape charges against him. He was in police custody for three days but later the court granted him bail to participate for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. On Bangladesh's victory over England, in which Hossain played a starring role, Nazneen withdrew the charges.^[19] Because of Rubel's performance against England, Happy's lawyer, Debul Day, ended his participation in the case saying "I no longer wish to fight against Rubel after seeing Bangladesh succeed. Rubel should feel no pressure."^[20]