Tewkesbury has pulled off a coup with the signing of Indian speedster Mukhtar Hussain for their 2022 West of England Premier League campaign.
The Assam express
Hussain is an exciting quick bowler who has excelled for Assam across the three domestic formats.
A tall bowler who regularly hits 140kph, Hussain’s journey started for Assam at age-group level, starring in the various state tournaments.
His exploits for the Under-19s at the Cooch Behar Trophy (Nov 2017-Jan 2018), where he topped the states wicket-charts (35 wickets at 17.88) paved the way to a Vijay Hazare Trophy debut in February 2018. Since then, he hasn’t looked back, bagging poles across all formats.
Rampaging Ranji season…
Hussain enjoyed a remarkable debut Ranji Trophy season (2018/19), taking 40 wickets at 24.15. He kicked off the campaign with successful 5-wicket hauls, namely 5-77 v Jharkhand, then 5-73 (and 4-44) v Tripura. A few games later he bagged his third 5-wicket haul, figures of 5-39 v Jammu and Kashmir.
Roll on the 2019/20 season, and Hussain continued to shine, taking career-best figures against Uttarakhand (6-15 from 12 overs) amongst 24 wickets at 29.08.
Unfortunately for the flying Hussain COVID struck and the 2020/21 season saw no Ranji Trophy cricket. Nevertheless, he continued to take poles in white-ball cricket, particularly in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (6 wickets at 18.83).
This summer (2021/22) will hopefully see the return of red-ball cricket and Hussain will hit the campaign in fine form, having captured 8 wickets at 15.62 all with an economy of 7.81 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20).
Hussain set for maiden UK stint
After his domestic summer, he will wing his way to the UK having recently signed with Tewkesbury for their 2022 West of England Premier League campaign.