The Melbourne Renegades are set to secure their third import with the addition of Bangladesh international left-arm quick Mustafizur Rahman.
The 31-year-old will join Jonny Bairstow and Michael Bracewell as the ‘Gades foreign players, with his addition coming shortly after fellow left-armer Jason Behrendorff was ruled out for BBL|16 with a shoulder injury.
Mustafizur’s signing was broken by Bangladesh Cricket Board president Tamim Iqbal who revealed the development to reporters last week during the D3 tournament auction.
Tamim said that Hobart spinner Rishad Hossain along with Mustafizur had applied for No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) to play BBL.
Mustafizur has played 130 T20Is for Bangladesh, taking 163 wickets at 21.14 with an economy rate of 7.38. He’s also played 126 ODIs and 15 Tests for his country.
The left-armer has also played a lot of T20 franchise cricket around the world, with stints in the IPL, Pakistani Super League, UAE ILT20, Lanka Premier League and Vitality Blast.
Mustafizur is widely known as ‘The Fizz’, as a play on words with his name, along with his diverse variations in his bowling especially slower off-cutters.
The ‘Gades bowling stocks are depleted, following the injury to Behrendorff, along with retirement of Andrew Tye and departures of Fergus O’Neill (Sydney Sixers) and Adam Zampa (Hobart Hurricanes). Gurinder Sandhu remains uncontracted too.
They have added local spinner Michael Archer and journeyman bowling all-rounder Ben Manenti.
