The promise of Afif and Yasir

While established stars like Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza are never away from the headlines, it is the performance of two young talents in this year's Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) that can give Bangladesh some new faces to look to.

22-year-olds Afif Hossain for Sylhet Sixers and Yasir Ali in Chittagong Vikings have made steady progress during this year's Bangladesh Premier League and have authored classy knocks of their own. Both have played in local cricket and are not unknown entities in international cricket. Afif and Yasir were both part of the Bangladesh Under-19 World Cup squad and the former was the vice-captain in the 2016 U-19 Asia Cup.

Afif, a left-handed batsman who bowls right-arm off-spin, was named the rising star of the Bangladesh squad for his exploits in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup, where he became the young Tigers' highest run-scorer with 276 runs. Not short on BPL experience, he had first featured in the BPL in 2016 for Rajshahi Kings and bagged a fifer on debut.

This season, he has shown his ability with the bat, playing freely and giving his side momentum. Although yet to strike a fifty, Afif's 28-ball 45 -- one where he took pressure off a star like David Warner -- against Chittagong Vikings and his 49 against Khulna Titans both contributed to his side's cause.

Yasir started off as a burly young man, which made it difficult. He always had power-hitting ability but lacked the fitness to play long innings. Coming off the back of two BPL seasons where he warmed the bench, this time around he has grabbed his chance in place of the out-of-form Mohammad Ashraful in the Chittagong Vikings lineup. He created the impact needed in T20s with a 34-ball 41 against the Titans before striking an impressive 48-ball 78 against Rangpur Riders, which was followed by a 38-ball 58 against Rajshahi Kings, to pick up his third fifty of the tournament so far. The change in fitness worked.

"When I first met him [Yasir] in the academy he was just a young player in the Academy squad who probably needed to do some work in conditioning. He has some skills, he had to improve on his fielding and fitness and he has done that. Now see what happened -- his batting has now gone to another level," said Chittagong coach and head coach of BCB's performance unit Simon Helmot, who worked with both Afif and Yasir in age-group teams.

"He can work the ball, hit with power, hit over midwicket, straight and extra cover. We are excited about his prospect in Bangladesh Cricket," he remarked. "This is the exciting part of BPL. We are seeing guys who can perform who are going to play for their country. We must not take our eyes off that. We have seen growth of players. Afif from Sylhet, he has started to grow and develop," Helmot added.

"We have a T20 world cup in Australia, October 2020. So this competition is very important for us because it gives us a look at the talent that is going to represent our country in a year's time."

The duo were a part of the same U-19 squad in the 2014 World Cup that featured the likes of Mustafizur Rahman, Liton Das and Mehedi Hasan Miraz. It would be hard to bet against these young Tigers reaching their former teammates' heights.