Bangladesh’s Amirul Islam Rises As Junior World Cup Drag-Flick Star

Bangladesh’s rising hockey star Amirul Islam, who has been in sensational drag-flicking form at the ongoing FIH Junior World Cup, idolises India captain Harmanpreet Singh and Australia’s Blake Govers, and hopes to etch his name in the sport’s history by drawing inspiration from the duo.

The 21-year-old defender and ace drag-flicker has been in prime form at the tournament, producing back-to-back hat-tricks to sit atop the goal-scorers’ chart with six strikes, alongside India’s Dilraj Singh and New Zealand’s Jonty Elmes.

The 21-year-old defender's all goals came from powerful and perfectly executed penalty corners in a 3-5 loss against Australia and a come-from-behind 3-3 draw against Korea here on Sunday.

"I am a big fan of Harmanpreet Singh. I idolise him and Australia's Blake Govers when it comes to drag-flicks. I study their technic and try to learn from them," Amirul told PTI after the draw against Korea.

In his debut FIH Junior World Cup campaign, Amirul has already brought valuable experience from the senior setup, having represented Bangladesh at the Hangzhou Asian Games and this year’s Asia Cup in Rajgir, Bihar.

A product of the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP) -- the country’s premier sports institute -- Amirul is among eight Bangladeshi players from the Asia Cup squad featuring in the Junior World Cup.

But by his own admission, Amirul is also working on his defensive game besides focussing on penalty corner conversions.

"I am primarily a defender besides being a drag-flicker and I constantly try to improve my overall game. Everyday, I practice 150 to 200 drag-flicks and that has been beneficial for me," he said.

Amirul, Bangladesh's backbone when it comes to scoring goals, however, defended the team's forwardline and said they are a work in progress. "It's not that we only rely on penalty corners. We are also focussing on scoring field goals and try a lot. You have seen that in the last two matches, how we have pressed Australia and Korea hard," he said.

"But scoring field goals is not easy against top teams, teams ranked above us. So, we tactically decided to earn more penalty corners and there where my role comes into play."

Amirul first started to play the sport at the age of 10, but he was introduced to drag-flicks much later during the 2019 Independence Cup while playing for BKSP.

"At that tournament I returned empty-handed and since then I started to give more time in practising drag-flicks," he said.

But Amirul rues the fact that hockey is not a popular sport in Bangladesh with the emphasis more on cricket and football, and called for more international exposure for the sport.

"Hockey is not that popular in Bangladesh compared to cricket and football. We need more exposure domestically and internationally. Our players need to play more in foreign leagues," he said.

"I got an offer from a Bundesliga third-division club in the past, but I couldn't go as I was on national duty."