Nijat Masood cherishes Mushfiqur wicket en route to record feat

Afghanistan's debutant pace bowler Nijat Masood checked into the history books by becoming the first bowler from his country to pick a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket. The right-arm fast bowler, who picked Zakir Hasan to achieve the feat, finished with a five-wicket haul.

Three of those wickets came on the second day, when he decided to bowl fuller with surprising short balls and created trouble for the Bangladeshi batsmen. His efforts earned him the wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim, one of the most technically correct batters in the country. Masood got him with a back of a length delivery outside off which kicked up and had the experienced campaigner gloving the ball up in the air.

Certainly there were enough reasons for him to celebrate but the wicket of Mushfiqur is the one that he will cherish.

"Definitely Mushfiqur. He is a big player for Bangladesh and he is dominating all the formats, so picking his wicket was very special to me," Masood told Cricbuzz on Thursday.

Masood also hit Taijul Islam on the chest before getting him caught at short leg and went on to complete his fifer by clean-bowling Shoriful Islam. It made him the second bowler from Afghanistan and the first pace bowler from his country to pick five wickets on debut.

"I wasn't expecting anything and this is grace of Allah that it happened (getting wicket off the first ball). It's not a small thing (achievement). I am really happy with my bowling performance.

"The wicket was good. The thing that happened is that we were not used to it (on the opening day). The wicket was green but it was hot on the first day, so the wicket got better on the second day."

Masood added that the backing from his coach Jonathon Trott and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi motivated him. He also credited his first-class experience for being able to take so well to Test cricket.

Masood made his Test debut with 83 wickets behind him from 25 first-class games.

"Definitely my first-class experience helped me because without first-class cricket you cannot play Test cricket, so certainly it proved beneficial," said Masood. "The coach and the captain have trust in me and told me that you can do it. They told me that I have done well in first-class cricket and challenged me to do well here (in international cricket). Those words pumped me up as their support was extremely helpful and probably that is the reason I picked five wickets."

Afghanistan have so far played six Test matches after being awarded the Test status in 2018. Their last Test was against Zimbabwe in March 2021. It is to be noted that Afghanistan is not a part of ICC Test Championship which would have ensured them a certain amount of Test matches. In fact, they don't have a decent number of Test matches lined up till 2025.

According to the FTP, their 2023 Test journey ends with a two-match series against Zimbabwe while in 2024 and 2025 they are scheduled to play seven and three Tests respectively.

"Definitely we don't play many Tests compared to T20Is and other formats and if we can get more opportunity certainly it will be helpful because we will have more experience," Masood said.