One of Bangladesh's most successful right arm seamers, Mashrafe Mortaza has been one of the reasons for his country's steady rise in international cricket. A bowler who can stir up quite a pace, Mortaza's success has been curbed on a few occasions due to his persistent injury woes.

The fast bowler's talent was recognized at a very early stage by Bangladesh's selectors and the man from Norail was handed his Test debut against Zimbabwe in 2001 without even playing a single first-class game. The year 2003 was a roller-coaster ride for the pace bowler as he registered impressive figures of 4-60 in a Test against England but fell prey to a knee injury that kept him away from the game for a year. He was re-called for a tour to England late in 2004 but soon suffered a back injury on the Sri Lankan tour in 2005 and failed to play out the entire series. He came back well in the year 2006 though, and put up some fine performances against sides like Australia and Kenya.

The speedster wasn't at his best in the Champions Trophy of 2009 but bounced back in ODIs against Zimbabwe and Scotland and proved his mettle. He has grown as a bowler ever since and was given the chance of leading Bangladesh on a tour to West Indies. That chance went a-begging as he got injured at the start of the tour and had to hand over the captaincy to Shakib Al Hasan.