After a standout performance in the recent T20 World Cup, Bangladesh’s leg-spinner Rishad Hossain has garnered international praise and caught the attention of franchise leagues. Although not included in the current Bangladesh-South Africa Test series squad, Rishad has received acclaim from none other than former South African cricket great Shaun Pollock, who is serving as a commentator for the ongoing series.

Pollock praised the young spinner in a conversation with Bangladeshi media following the first Test in Mirpur. Pollock commented, “A very common strategy from Bangladesh's team, they always trying to make a spin friendly pitch, especially against the outside of the Asian team. So can Bangladesh change their strategy in next week? Is it more effective? No, I think you want to back your strengths. Whatever wickets are going to be more helpful to you than the opposition, that's just stock standard wherever you go around the world, whether it be, England would know what's their strength I think this Australia knows that their strength is pace and bounce, India know that their strength is turn. No, I don't think they need to go away from it.

“You have chats down there, and I think spinning department-wise, I love the look of that legspinner. I can't remember his name. He played at the World Cup. Rishad [Hossain]? Yeah, he looks good. I mean, if you can develop him, if you got Taijul [Islam], if you got Mehidy [Hasan Miraz], those three are your combinations, and then you got two fast bowlers, that's key. But ideally, you don't want to be changing teams too much. So as you go around the world, South Africa change one, maybe two players. When I think you want to try and create... In order to create consistency, there's also consistency in selection. So we pick the same guys to play in the different conditions, the more consistent they can be.”

Following a tough loss in the first Test, Bangladesh is now trailing 1-0 in the two-match series, needing a win in the next match to level the series.