Taskin's tremendous comeback: From being dropped from the 2019 World Cup squad to becoming Bangladesh's hero against South Africa

When Taskin Ahmed made his debut in 2014 in an ODI against India at Mirpur, he took five wickets for 28 runs.

This is still his best ODI bowling figure but on Wednesday the right-arm fast bowler took his second ODI five-for.

This time though, it happened against South Africa in South Africa in a match that would decide the series and a historic occasion for Bangladesh. 

The five-for in the 3rd ODI helped Bangladesh defeat South Africa in an ODI series in South Africa for the first time and also earned Taskin the player-of-the-match award.

But in between those two five-fors, Taskin has seen many ups and downs in his career.

When Taskin started as an 18-year-old, he still had the pace but as he soon found out in international cricket, if you don't continue to improve and develop your game, others will find you out.

Injuries and fitness issues on top of that threatened to derail Taskin's career, so much so, that he missed out on making the World Cup squad in 2019 and he couldn't control his tears then.

But from there, he has worked hard on his fitness, maintained a diet, gotten his pace back up, and become an undroppable player for the Tigers in all three formats.

In fact, he'd done so well that the 26-year-old had caught the attention of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Although the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has not allowed him to play in the IPL this season with two important Tests coming up against South Africa, the interest has fired him up to produce arguably his career's best bowling in the 3rd ODI at Supersport Park on Wednesday. 

Taskin ran in and banged the ball into the pitch and utilised the variable bounce on offer at the SuperSport Park to full effect.

That rattled the top order of South Africa. He first picked up the wicket of Kyle Verreynne with a rather poor delivery which Verreynne dragged in back to the stumps.

But his second wicket, where he dismissed Janneman Malan was a peach of a delivery with extra bounce and movement to have the batter caught behind.

His third wicket was of Dwaine Pretorius who was beaten by pace and the same was the case for the dangerous David Miller; his fifth victim was Kagiso Rabada.

After finishing with figures of 5-35, Taskin said he tried to stick with his basics and it worked out for him on the day.

He was also adjudged as the player of the series for his excellent bowling in the first ODI too, which played a big role in the Tigers winning that match.

"Feeling happy and proud. This is the first time for me (getting) the Player of the Series (award). For the last one-and-half and two years, I have been following the same process. In every match, my captain always supports me, and gives me a clear role: to be fast and aggressive, and take wickets. I enjoyed it a lot (here), and from when we have arrived, I have been working on my length. Just basics. I still have to learn how to get five wickets on a flat wicket," Taskin said in the post-match presentation. 

That process is going to be key for Bangladesh in the upcoming ODI World Cup where they will field arguably their best pace bowling attack and Taskin will hopefully be at the forefront of it.