For a brief moment Towhid Hridoy stood with his eyes closed and soaked in all the applause, including from Indian players.
Century-maker Hridoy’s journey to the international stage has been one of hardship and sacrifice. He was once rejected by the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the premier sports institution in the country. Then the Bogra-based family’s savings were swindled away by a fake cricket academy where Hridoy had enrolled.
Yet, every setback made him only stronger.
But there was joy, and also pain, for Hridoy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday en route to his 100 against India in their Champions Trophy opener.
On 98, battling severe cramps that were hampering his movements, Hridoy put in a desperate dive to move to 99. Running out of partners, under the sweltering heat, his body had given up the moment he entered the 90s. By the afternoon, he had already done an incredible bail-out job by combining with Jaker Ali to help Bangladesh recover from 35/5.
This, however, was a moment that Hridoy has been waiting for since he picked up the bat, inspired by Bangladesh’s mother-of-all shock wins at the World Cup, over India in 2007. Growing up in Bogra, Hridoy knew what he wanted in life when he saw his idol Mushfiqur Rahim pick up a stump after that win over India at Trinidad in 2007.
“When I saw that stump in person during a programme in Bogra, I was really inspired by it. I was very little. I dreamed from that day that I wanted to play for the national team,” he would say of that moment when he fell in love with cricket.
Bangladesh’s Towhid Hridoy prays to celebrate after scoring a century during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Bangladesh at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP)
That win is what lit a burning desire in him, to earn a Bangladesh cap and emulate what his idol had done as a teenager. In pursuit of it, like countless talented kids in the country, he would knock on the doors of BKSP, only for them to reject him without a trial. It would lead him to go in search of private academies in Dhaka and when he found one, little did he know he was being taken for a ride.
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Born to parents who are farmers, his mother would sell the only asset – a small piece of land they owned — to fund his academy coaching. But when he reached Dhaka, the academy proved to be a fake one.
“My father never supported my cricket. It was only because I was adamant, but my mother help me. But when I reached Dhaka, there was no such academy. I understood I was duped. I didn’t want to continue playing cricket,” he would say.
Hridoy was 12 then and a couple of years after finding a new academy, in Khaled Mahmud he would find a godfather.
Impressed by his talent Mahmud, the former Bangladesh captain, who held powerful positions in the Bangladesh Cricket Board, would give him a coaching scholarship and find him a team in the Dhaka First Division League.
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Ability to handle pressure
From there on, Hridoy has hardly looked back. Right from his age-group levels, one aspect has stood out about Hridoy — his ability to bat long and make runs under pressure. Having modelled his batting on his idol Mushfiqur — his bat lift and slog sweep are carbon copy of the senior batsman – he has long been earmarked as a future No.4, a position he batted at when Bangladesh won the Under-19 World Cup in 2020 by beating India in the final.
Bangladesh’s Towhid Hridoy celebrates his century with Taskin Ahmed during a One Day International (ODI) cricket match of the ICC Champions Trophy between India and Bangladesh, at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, in Dubai, UAE. (PTI)
A couple of years later, Hridoy’s career appeared to be fading away. Their current assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin had tweaked his batting, to make him more technically sound, but it had led to a string of low scores. And after losing a BPL final from a winning position, he would go back to the same old bat lift and the wide stance.
On Thursday when he walked out at No.5, Bangladesh were struggling at 26/3 in 6.2 overs and in no time it would become 35/5 as their dressing room looked shell-shocked.
Over the next couple of hours, while combining with Ali and with help from Hardik Pandya–who dropped him on 23 – Hridoy would go about building an innings that
would remain special to him and show the world why his mentor Mahmud calls him the heart (Hridoy means heart in Bengali) of Bangladesh batting.
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With India’s spinners, especially Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadajaattacking the stumps, Hridoy would just rely on finding the gaps to fetch singles and twos.
With Ali, Bangladesh’s crisis man off late, playing another impactful innings, Hridoy would get the odd boundary here and there through slog sweeps, as Bangladesh fans began to find their voice. The 154-runs stand came off 206 deliveries, but more importantly it took Bangladesh out of trouble.
