Australia spinner Nathan Lyon was so impressed with Bangladesh batsman Sabbir Rahman on the opening day of the ongoing second Test in Chittagong that he compared him with none other India batting star Virat Kohli, arguably the best batsman in the world right now.
While Kohli, the number one batsman in ODIs and T20Is, recently scored his 30th ODI century and had more than 45 international centuries, whereas, Rahman is yet to reach the three-digit mark in international cricket.
But not paying too much attention to the stats, Lyon only considered Sabbir’s brave knock on day one, as he said the Bangladesh star reminds him of Kohli. Rahman had walked into bat when the hosts were reeling at 117 for five but played an aggressive knock of 67 runs to bail the team out of trouble. He added 105 runs with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim as Bangladesh finished the day on a respectable 253 for six.
“He’s a good player, he reminds me of Virat Kohli,” said Lyon. “(Kohli) is probably a pretty good role model to have in the subcontinent. That’s only on (Sabbir’s) persona out there and the way he walks around the crease and the shots he’s played here.”
“We find (Sabbir) doesn’t want to defend, he wants to take the game on, and that’s brave cricket. He batted pretty well today. He played some nice shots. He was lucky here and there, but you need a bit of luck in cricket,” added Lyon, who took five for 77.
Sabbir was especially aggressive towards the Australian off-spinner. While Rahim scored 13 off the 39 balls he faced from Lyon, Sabbir ended up with a strike rate of 110.52 against the spinner, hitting him for two fours and a six. However, Lyon had the last laugh in the battle when he had Sabbir stumped off a poor ball.
“I had a bit of luck today with the stumping; it probably wasn’t the best ball I’ve ever bowled in Test cricket. He’s a good cricketer; we’re paying him a lot of respect that’s for sure,” he said.