Mushfiqur Rahim's dreams are about to come true!

When the diminutive right-handed wicket-keeper batter walks out to play the second Test against Ireland at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Wednesday (November 19), history will be made.

Rahim will only be the nineth batter in cricketing history to be the first player to play 100 Tests for their respective countries. He will join an elite club that comprises of Colin Cowdrey (England), Sunil Gavaskar (India), Clive Lloyd (West Indies), Allan Border (Australia), Javed Miandad (Pakistan), Gary Kirsten (South Africa), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand).

For any cricketer it is certainly a huge achievement to be the first to play 100 Test for their country, and the journey can be a testament of sheer determination and dedication for Rahim, who seems to have truly understood the value of the format.

Former Bangladesh skipper Tamim Iqbal, known to be one of Rahim's close friends since his childhood, feels that no one deserves to reach the historical landmark more than the right-handed batter, known as Mr Dependable.

"I feel that if anyone among us really deserved to play 100 Test matches, then he (Rahim) deserved it," Tamim told Cricbuzz when his attention was drawn regarding the journey of Rahim with whom he had some memorable memories both on and off the field.

"Again, I am saying this doesn't mean to belittle anyone. The reason is that for a Bangladeshi cricketer, playing 100 Test matches is very challenging. For example, after him many players have already debuted in international cricket, played 100 Tests, and even retired by now," he said.

"There was a time in Bangladesh when in two years you would have just one or two Test matches and he belonged to that era of players. So to keep him motivated, to keep him fit, to keep performing and to achieve that he is going to achieve in the coming days is a remarkable achievement.

"And I think, if you ask the cricketing family, the thing I said, actually he deserves it the most because of the way he has maintained his body, the way he trains. I think it's a great achievement," he said.

"And I would also say that we should not see this as someone's individual achievement. Yes, because it's a humongous moment for Bangladesh cricket. Somebody playing 100 Test matches, I am sure in the future many more will, yes. But to be the first man and to come from an era where in one and a half years you play one or two Tests, and from there play 100 Test matches, I think the whole country, the entire cricketing fraternity, fans, cricket board, players-everybody should celebrate this moment. It should not be seen as one individual achievement," he said.

Habibul Bashar, former Bangladesh skipper under whose captaincy Rahim debuted as a young batter at Lords, insisted that from the early stage he gave up everything for the sake of cricket.

"Cricket is everything for Mushfiqur," Bashar told this website. "I was his captain and then selector and I have been with him for a long time in his career and he's one of those players who [would always be] selected in the playing XI and it didn't need to be discussed and he is that kind of player."

Tamim feels that Rahim transformed his batting from time to time to make sure he can cope with the challenges, and kept on following his same mantra irrespective of whether it was fetching results.

Rahim has set a benchmark that few can match in a cricketing culture where longevity is rare and turned out to be symbol of hard work and commitment, that too when his relentless practice sessions often raised quite a few eyebrows when his chips were down as critics put it-that he is losing all his energy in the nets.

Rahim told the BCB cricket operation officials just after the first Test match against Ireland that he needed to get the wicket prepared in Mirpur for him, as he wants to train alone considering they have a scheduled break, and this relentless pursuit of excellence defines not only his career but his very character.

"I think in international cricket if you need to be successful, the most important thing is to understand your own game. And then how you are going to train and how you are going to prepare for games-that is probably the most important thing to be successful," said Iqbal.

"So Mushfiq is a great example of being an okay batsman to being a very good batsman because when he started his career, for a number of years he was an okay batsman but he understood what he needed to do within his capacity, how much hard work he needed to do, how many number of balls he needed to face-he understood that very well and he transformed everything. So from being a moderate batsman, he stood up as a very good batsman," he said.

"Now throughout this process, what I have seen, the thing I will definitely tell you-everybody has their own mantra of preparing, getting ready for the games. So he has his own mantra. Not necessarily that it works for somebody else, but it works for him," he said.

"The best thing that I saw in him is-that mantra, when it was working, what I mean is when he was scoring runs and then everything was fine with it. But when he was not scoring runs, following the same thing-there were a lot of questions raised. 'Why is he doing this? He is getting tired,' and that and that," he said.

"Credit to him-he never ever listened to any noise. He kept doing it. He always believed in his mantra and through ups and downs he kept moving forward. Regardless, I have seen multiple coaches questioning this when things were not going well for him 'why so much batting' or 'why so much of this and that' but he never got distracted. So he kept on doing what he was doing. So I think you have to give a lot of credit to him," he said.

Bashar felt that many among us don't try to understand that every individual has a different kind of preparation, and as a result he was at the receiving end despite working hard day-in and day-out.

"Someone has to do four rounds while running and it may be three for some and everyone has a different body and mindset. But there is no alternative to hard work," said Bashar. "I won't criticise him (for running that extra mile) as maybe he comes during a holiday to practice and maybe some don't like that, but you can't see that in a bad light," he said.

In the cricketing circles of Bangladesh, Rahim is well known as an emotional cricketer. There are many stories present of how he gets immensely upset if he fails to contribute with the bat for the team. Sometimes, he even skips lunch out of agony!

That's not all. There are several other instances that showcase how his emotions drive him. Some of which include distancing himself from the media and more so deciding not to attend the pre-series presser ahead of his 100th Test match. This was despite being requested by the team management and these instances only validate that something did not go well with him as far as his experience with the media is concerned, though Tamim begs to differ as he insisted that he is misunderstood guy.

"See, I think that's (emotional guy) true to some extent but that's also a thing that sometimes he is also misunderstood," said Tamim.

"See, everybody in this world, as a human, you will have a good side and a bad side-both. But as a human, you also need to know how to deal with certain individuals. [That] I never had issues with him, I won't say this. He is my friend, I had fights, I had friendship, I have beautiful moments, everything with him. That's called friendship," he said.

"But I also know how to deal with him. And that's why we are very close. So I would say like any human, he has both a good side and a bad side," he added.

Tamim added that watching him in the dressing room is an experience considering the way he conducts each move in front of his team mates without making any compromise on following his regular neat-and-clean mantra.

"Very neat and clean (inside the dressing room) and I mean this is an experience to watch. It's an experience to watch how a person can be so disciplined, organised. So it's an experience to watch and I hope if someone ever gets that fortune, then they will see it (how he conducts himself in the dressing room)," he concluded.

Mushfiqur had always been an organised man throughout his career without making unnecessary noise and his childhood mentor Nazmul Abedin feels that is the only reason he has managed to achieve to reach the landmark.

"There were couple of cricketers of his generation who could also reach that landmark of playing 100 Tests but that did not happen as while others were focused on many things while he was only focused on cricket," said Nazmul, who is currently acting as the cricket operation chairman of BCB.

For the next generation of Bangladesh cricketers Rahim will be looked upon as someone who fought against all odds, and won the battle on his own terms through all the ups and downs.