Hasan Mahmud has gone from Dhaka to Canterbury to Darwin in just a couple of months, stopping over in Colombo and Dambulla in between, and now given Bangladesh one of their best days in Test cricket.
His six-wicket haul against Australia in Darwin on Thursday set up the perfect first day for Bangladesh on their first day of Test cricket in the country since 2003. In many ways, his success is the culmination of a lot of focused work for a while now.
Mahmud's adventure isn't limited to the cities and towns mentioned above. It tells only part of the story of how he has strived for excellence, and how he has contributed to the growth of Bangladesh's fast bowling in the last five years.
In Darwin, Pat Cummins won the toss and asked Najmul Hossain Shanto to bring his bowlers on, and Australia were bowled out for 198 in just over two sessions. Bangladesh's joy was multiplied as they ended the day on 96 for 1, very much on top. This was only the second time in Bangladesh's history when fast bowlers have taken all ten wickets for them. When it happened last, in 2024 in Rawalpindi Mahmud had taken five wickets. Here, he got six.
Mahmud got two early wickets, removing openers Jake Weatherald and Travis Head. Big wickets, but also useful for soothing Bangladesh's opening-day nerves. Mahmud had bowled five overs but Shanto gave him two more. The wickets came in those two overs.
Mahmud picked up two more wickets in the second session - Cummins and Mitchell Starc - before adding Steven Smith to his tally and finishing with the wicket of Nathan Lyon. Two years ago, when Mahmud took a five-wicket haul against India in Chennai, he had removed both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. It's becoming a habit.
"Bowling at one of the best teams in the world is challenging. We had good preparation - you could see that in our bowlers' performance," Mahmud told the press after the day's play. "I think Taskin [Ahmed] bhai and Ebadot [Hossain] bowled really well too. There was moisture and some seam movement in the morning session. We planned to be disciplined, and develop a partnership in our spells. We built pressure because of the way Taskin bhai and Ebadot bowled."
That might sound like diplomacy, talking up the other quicks, who took two wickets each, but it wasn't. What stood out on Thursday was how he adjusted his bowling based on how the other two were going. Mahmud attacked when Taskin or Ebadot went on the defensive, and defended when the others were fresher, looking for wickets. Of course, he was looking for wickets all along too, and the big one made him the happiest.
"I think Smith's wicket was the special one; he was having a hard time predicting what I was going to do," Mahmud said of Australia's best batter on the day - Smith scored 71. "I trusted my instinct as I bowled that bouncer to him [which Smith top-edged while attempting a pull and sent to Litton Das behind the stumps]."
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Mahmud now has three five-wicket hauls in his 15 Tests, this one his best. One of the others came against Pakistan at a decisive point in the Test series in 2024, where he set up a simple chase for Bangladesh in the second Test, which they won to take the series 2-0. Mahmud, however, missed the Test series against Pakistan earlier this year because of a tennis elbow condition.
Once he recovered, he was hungry for action.
When he went to England with his wife, Mahmud trained at the St Lawrence ground in Canterbury, where Kent coach Adam Hollioake conducted his trials. He impressed everyone, before earning the sports visa to play in England. He also played a little in the Lanka Premier League recently. Interestingly, both deals landed on his lap on the same day.
"It has to be a record, getting a county deal and a franchise deal on the same day," Mahmud told Daily Sun in June. "It's a blessing. I believe it's a reward for all the patience."
He took a six-wicket haul in his first appearance for Kent against Lancashire a few weeks later. Mahmud, who also did well in the T20 Blast for Kent, will return to the county for four more matches after this Test series against Australia.
"I gained a lot of confidence bowling in county cricket. I had to learn which length to bowl in these conditions, which I somehow found similar," Mahmud said on Thursday. "I think it also helped me to bowl a lot at training with the old and new ball."
He now has five-fors in India, Pakistan and Australia, a rare feat not just for a Bangladeshi bowler, but in general. "All three are big achievements for me. These are big teams against whom I took five-wicket hauls, so I want to continue bowling like that."
If he does, the number of stops on his cricketing journey will go up fast, and the Bangladesh Cricket Board might have to arrange many more sports visas for him soon.