Mushfiqur Rahim

One of Bangladesh's longest-serving and most accomplished cricketers, wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim got his start as a wild-card inclusion for the team's maiden tour of England, in 2005, aged 18, during which he became the youngest player to appear in a Test match at Lord's.

Mushfiqur captained in the Under-19 World Cup in February 2006, and featured in a Test in Bogra (that venue's first) against Sri Lanka the following month, though he could make little of the spin of Murali and Malinga Bandara. His first Test fifty came on the return tour of Sri Lanka the following year. Earlier in 2007, he was picked as the first-choice wicketkeeper, ahead of Khaled Mashud, for the World Cup in the West Indies - where he starred in Bangladesh's landmark defeat of India, anchoring the chase of 192 with 56 not out.

Mushfiqur came into his own as a Test batter in the 2010s, stepping up to No. 4, shedding the image of lower-order scrapper, taking on the mantle of dependable mainstay, and proving himself one of the better players of spin in the Bangladesh line-up. His first hundred, the fastest by a Bangladesh batter then, came against India in Chattogram in 2010, and was followed two Tests later by 72 and 95 against England at the same venue.

After defeats on the Test and white-ball legs of the series in Zimbabwe in 2011, he was appointed captain in place of Shakib Al Hasan, a role he served in for 94 internationals, through to 2018 - though the white-ball part of his tenure lasted only till 2014. Highlights of his term included a first-time place in the Asia Cup final in 2012 and a whitewash of Zimbabwe in a Test series at home in 2014.

In 2013, Mushfiqur produced a double-century against Sri Lanka in Galle in a Bangladesh total of 638, their highest. In 2017, there were back-to-back hundreds against New Zealand and India away - though they could not fend off defeats. In Mirpur in 2018 and 2020, he scored double-hundreds against Zimbabwe in back-to-back Tests against them 15 months apart; the first of those made him the first wicketkeeper-batter to score two Test double-hundreds. His favourite opponents, though, have been Sri Lanka, against whom he averages over 50 - boosted, most recently, by consecutive hundreds in the 2022 home series. Against them in 2017, he became the first Bangladesh wicketkeeper to get to 100 dismissals in Tests.

Mushfiqur became the first to play 100 games in the BPL, in 2023. He has been among the leading run-scorers in the tournament for a number of years since the league kicked off, turning out for Rajshahi Royals and Khulna Tigers most often.