Bangladesh’s pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who is currently playing for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, revealed that he doesn’t watch cricket very often as he prefers to play.
Having picked 12 wickets in the IPL 2024 so far, the left-arm pacer is one of CSK’s most important players but he will leave the franchise on May 1 due to international duty as Bangladesh will play a three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe.
Rahman, 28, said that he rarely watches matches as even in T20 cricket, he would only tune in for the final four overs as the match gets into an intense phase by then.
"I've never been an avid cricket watcher, I prefer playing. I think that it's better for me to watch at that period [death overs]. Even when I watch a T20 match, I only watch the final four overs or so,” Mustafizur said in a video shared by CSK on the social media platforms.
“I try to observe which areas the batsmen are hitting the ball at, how they are playing. Very rarely I watch the entire 40 overs of the match.”
The left-armer revealed that playing for CSK, a five-time IPL-winning team, was a dream. He also praised the Chennai fanbase and former skipper MS Dhoni for giving him constant advice.
"This is my first season with Chennai. Since I began playing in the IPL in 2016, it has been my dream to play for the Chennai team. After getting the call [from CSK management] that night, I couldn't sleep," he added.
"Everyone here is friendly. The environment has been good from day one, I haven't felt uneasy at all. Mahi bhai [Dhoni] showed me some field setups, Bravo spoke to me about how to bowl in the death overs. These inputs have been invaluable.
“We mostly speak about bowling. I haven't really spoken about anything else. We speak sometimes on the field about what to do. Mahi bhai comes to me and tells me that it would be better if I did this," the 28-year-old concluded.
