Ebadot Hossain

Ebadot Hossain is a key name in Bangladesh's fast-bowling crop of the 2020s. A volleyball player for the Bangladesh Air Force, he made his way into the Test side in 2019. Since then, he has taken dramatic strides at the highest level that have said as much of his growth as of Bangladesh's fast bowling.

Taller than the average Bangladeshi, Ebadot has a run-up with a distinct flavour of an army march past. He has a clean load-up and a chest-on action that helps him generate decent pace - in the middle to high 130s. His career turning point came after he played ten Tests, averaging a whopping 81 with the ball. His second-innings figures of 6 for 46 against New Zealand in Bangladesh's famous win in Mount Maunganui in 2022 was transformational. By the following year, his Test bowling average had nearly halved and he was also in the ODI side, although an anterior cruciate ligament injury kept him out of the Asia Cup, the World Cup, and the Test side for about two years.

Born in Kathaltali, a village on Bangladesh's north-eastern border with India, Ebadot idolised Brett Lee, the legendary Australian fast bowler. He landed his sports job with the air force, but a cricket career was his dream. He travelled more than 350km to Faridpur, west of Dhaka, for a pace-bowling hunt, where he finished as one of the top three. The BCB's scouts duly picked him for a long-term camp.

He impressed the former Pakistan fast bowler Aaqib Javed, who consulted for the BCB for a while, before making a first-class debut for Sylhet. A ten-wicket haul the following season helped Ebadot earn a place in the New Zealand-bound Test squad in 2019 - which was a disaster for the Bangladesh side as a whole, not just him.

When he removed Virat Kohli in the Eden Gardens Test later in the same year, Ebadot produced a military-inspired salute celebration that went on to be something of a meme when Kohli went without a Test hundred for the next four years.

Second time around in New Zealand, three years on, he ran through their middle order in Mount Maunganui. When he got the ball to zip between Ross Taylor's bat and pad on the fifth morning, Ebadot had taken the first five-wicket haul for a Bangladeshi fast bowler in nearly a decade. His four wickets in an ODI against India later in the year, in his second match in the format, was another match-winning effort, and he finished with nine wickets in the three matches of that series.