CricketGeek Player Profile: Elias Sunny

In July this year, Elias Sunny became the first person to be named man of the match on debut in two different formats when he took 5/13 against Ireland at Stormont. It was another notch in what has become a stellar start to his cricketing career. He also took 6/94 on test debut.

Sunny is a slow left arm bowler, but he bowls with quite an open action, so the ball comes from a slightly different angle than an orthodox left-arm spin bowler. This has given him an ability to get left handed batsmen out with more regularity than most left-arm spinners. He also turns the ball quite sharply, and tends to bowl a slightly different length than most orthodox spinners. These combine to make him a real danger man for teams playing against Bangladesh.

His different angles mean that he's likely to be a particular threat to batsmen who have not faced him before, although he has shown the ability to get out some batsmen repeatedly, notably compatriot Mahmudullah, who he has dismissed a number of times in domestic cricket.

His international T20 record is remarkable, averaging 12.22 with an economy rate of 5.50, but that is somewhat artificial, given that he has only played against Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland. However his overall T20 record is still very good, and includes being the local player of the Bangladesh Premier League. Here is a graph of his career averages.

We can see he is settling in to an average of under 20, and an economy rate close to 6. If he can translate that to international cricket he will be a massive asset to Bangladesh, and could be part of the catalyst that they need to go to the next level.

This tournament is likely to be a good litmus test for him. We may get the chance to see if he has just had a good start, or if he really is as good as his figures would indicate.