Shahadat enters dreamland after overcoming nightmarish childhood

How diverse is human life? Or how much struggle one has to go through to be successful? If you listen to the life story of Shahadat Hossain Dipu, you probably will get the answer.

The life of this 21-year-old cricketer has been a little tougher than everyone else's. His father Abdus Sabur, a driver at Chittagong Medical College Hospital, died of cancer in 2010. His mother Ferdous Begum fell into darkness with her two sons Abul Hossain and Shahadat. Abul took a job as a driver to support the family.

While Abul worked tirelessly to run the family, Shahadat was running after cricket. But the path wasn't that smooth.

He was dropped from the trial of BKSP. When the batter was about to accept defeat, a man named Sudipta Dev convinced Shahadat's mother and elder brother to admit him to Ispahani Cricket Academy. The middle-order batter played second-division cricket for the team in 2013.

Shahadat got the opportunity to play for the Chittagong district team in the middle of 2014. From here his story started to change. His performance sealed his place in the World Cup-winning U-19 side. He then showed his batting ability everywhere he played. And now, he earned his maiden national team call-up for the one-off Test against Afghanistan. 

Shahadat is happy, definitely, to earn his maiden call-up. But he is aware of improving his batting too. 

"I'm happy, of course. Every cricketer dreams of playing for the national team, I am no different. But I'm thinking about improving my game," Shahadat said on Monday.

Shahadat was asked about his struggling days. 

"When my father died, I was a little boy. I didn't understand what it meant then. But I gradually understood as I was growing up, my elder brother was helping our family. And there was Sudipto bhai, who helped me a lot regarding cricket," an emotional Shahadat said.

Shahadat could not do anything memorable in the last domestic season with the red ball. He scored 115 runs in 6 innings in National League and 194 runs in 5 innings with 2 half-centuries in BCL. His performance for the 'A' team earned him a place in the Test team. He played a great innings of 80 runs against the India 'A' team in Sylhet last December.

A few days ago, Shahadat played two effective innings of 73 and 50 runs in the second unofficial Test against the West Indies 'A' team in Sylhet.

Although he dreamt of playing for the national team in his heart, he kept his hopes in check.

"I was playing in the 'A' team. There were three matches there. I was focused on that, to do well for the 'A' team. The rest I did not know. The selectors didn't say anything like that (about getting selected)," he further said.

Shahadat knows that it will be very difficult to get into the playing XI. He plans to constantly improve his skills whether he gets his chance or not.

"I will try to improve my skills every day. I will try to become stronger mentally. That's my job. The more I improve, the easier it will be for me to play," he concluded.