DHAKA, —Unable to decode his cutter and slower deliveries, Australia batsmen felt hapless and dejected but they discovered one thing that Mustafizur Rahman is the faster version of Afghanistan leg spinner Rashid Khan.

Rashid Khan is unarguably the best bowler in the shortest format of the cricket as all of the batsmen found him extremely tougher to deal with. Rashid Khan’s economy rate against the best batsmen of this generation and the number of his wickets spoke volumes of his success.

Mustafizur Rahman is still not as successful as Rashid Khan in this format but his mysterious cutter and slower deliveries had already baffled most of the batsmen in this generation.

While his stock weapons cutter, slower, off cutter, slower cutter didn’t work much in the other part of the world, in Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mustafizur Rahman is nearly unplayable largely due to those above stated deliveries. Mirpur surface in fact is ideal for his stock weapons as it is extremely slow in nature.

Mustafizur conceded just over three runs per over in the series against Australia, including giving away less than 10 runs in four overs allocation in the last two matches. That was the testament of how unplayable he is to Australian batsmen.

Dan Christian, the most successful batsman in Australia’s first victory in the Bangladesh tour yesterday admitted that they are yet to find a strategy to counter Mustafizur.

After wrapping up the five-match series, following three straight wins, Bangladesh were restricted to 104-9 but still Australia had to struggle to cruise to a victory and of course the reason was Mustafiuzr Rahman.

Dan Christian kept the side in a good stead with 15 ball-39, that included five sixes in an over of Shakib Al Hasan—before Mustafizur appeared on the stage.

Mustafizur got immediate success, removing Christian and tilted the match towards Bangladesh.

A late cameo from Ashton Agar (27 off as many balls) and a stubborn nine not out from Ashton Turner got Australia over the line – but Christian’s early onslaught meant the tourists were able to take fewer risks against Bangladesh’s trump card, Mustafizur Rahman.

Christian labelled the left arm fast bowler “borderline unplayable”, explaining that “it’s like facing a really fast Rashid Khan” given the Bangladeshi’s remarkable wrist-contorting off-cutter slower balls.

“We talked a lot about different plans tonight, leading into the game and whether you try to play him off the front foot or the back foot, hit him through the off side or hit him through the leg side,” he said of Mustafizur, whose economy rate is at 3.56 for the series.

“The revs he gets on the ball, the variability in the pitch – you don’t know what he’s going to do so it’s really hard to hit off the front foot because the odd one will turn and then the next one will bounce.

“We obviously still haven’t worked it out because he only went at two over tonight. It’s pretty impressive bowling – he’s certainly using the conditions to his advantage.”