Mehdi Hasan is the new sunshine of the Bangladesh Cricket Team.
One of the promotional videos for last year's under-19s World Cup has an ambitious Mehedi Hasan laying out his career goals with a Star Wars style them tune blaring out in the background.
His aims are truly stellar. "I will lead Bangladesh from the front, it is a big dream of mine. My plan is to play for Bangladesh for 15 years. I want to be the top all-rounder in the world ranking," he says to the camera while riding in the back of a car before the shot cuts to him walking out at the Mirpur stadium in Dhaka with his bat in hand.
Well, he took a step to the top of those world rankings on his very first day of Test cricket. By the close he had become the second youngest spinner to take five wickets on debut. He also became only the third spinner in history to pick up five wickets on his first day in Test cricket.
Hasan has been a star in the making ever since he captained Bangladesh at the previous under-19s World Cup in 2014 aged just 16.
He was so young when he first took the job on that he was still eligible to captain his country again in the 2015 tournament, one in which Bangladesh finished third to provide further proof of their rising power as a cricket nation. Hasan was named player of the tournament.
Hasan, who turns 19 the day after the first Test is due to finish, had to sneak out from his parents home as youngster to play cricket. He grew up in Khulna, Bangladesh's third largest city, and his parents would have preferred him to concentrate on his schoolwork but his prodigious talent was spotted early by Sheikh Salahuddin, a former Bangladesh player described as the best off-spinner of his generation.
Salahuddin never made the most of his own talent, playing only a handful of one-dayers in the 1990s for Bangladesh, but taught his young prodigy how to spin the ball and the value of control. Thirty wickets in his second full season of first-class cricket at the average of only 16 backed up the schoolboy promise.
Salahuddin died suddenly of a heart attack three years ago aged only 44 so missed out on watching Hasan develop into one of the world's leading under-19 cricketers and now Test debutant.
What was remarkable about Hasan's performance is that he barely bowled a bad ball all day. He varied his flight, spun the ball hard and had the on-field presence of a confident, experienced bowler playing in his 50th Test. He looked settled on the big stage from his first over.
"I am never going to forget this day," he said. "I got a five-wicket haul on my Test debut. I got massive turn off my first delivery but Mushfiq repeatedly told me that I should bowl at the stumps, so that I have chance to get leg-before or hit the stumps. From my second or third over, I realised that I will be successful if I bowl stump to stump. I never really thought I would get five wickets. I just wanted to do something for the team, and get settled in at this level."
So far this Test has only seen one half of Hasan's game. He averages 40 in first-class cricket with the bat, and struck three fifties in the World Cup last year. That promotional video ended with a question. "The next Shakib al Hasan?" Shakib, Bangladesh's premier all-rounder, is worth an estimated $35m from his many endorsement deals. Riches await for Hasan if his first day at the office is anything to go by.
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