Bangladesh's mystery spinner Mohammad Rubel has become one of the most talked about names in domestic cricket circles, following a stunning showing in the Top End T20, an emerging players tournament held in Australia.

Rubel finished the competition with 23 wickets from just seven matches, 10 more than the second-highest wicket-taker, sparking widespread discussion about a potential national call-up despite the bowler already being 30 years old.

Speaking to Cricinfo, chief selector Habibul Bashar Sumon addressed the question of age directly, drawing an unusual comparison with Australian batting great Micheal Hussey to make his point about Rubel's international prospects.

"We have been tracking him since the BPL last year. He is a mystery bowler who performs regularly. He also happens to be a good fielder. He is not too young, but Micheal Hussey made his international debut quite late, and he went on to become one of the best batters to play for Australia. Age won't stand in Rubel's way," Bashar said.

Hussey's own career offers a compelling case study, having debuted in ODIs at 28 and in Tests two years later, before going on to score 6,235 runs at an average of 51.52 across 79 Test matches, including 19 centuries.

His overall Test average never dipped below 50 throughout his career, and across all formats of international cricket, Hussey compiled 12,398 runs and 22 centuries, briefly rising to become the world's top ranked ODI batter in 2006.

In the shorter format, Hussey scored 5,442 runs at an average of 48.15 from 185 ODI appearances, while also contributing 721 runs at close to 38 across 38 T20 internationals during a career defined by late blooming success.

Bashar pointed to the return of A team tours as a key factor, explaining that Bangladesh's domestic performers had previously struggled to bridge the gap between strong local form and genuine international readiness.

"It is difficult to understand the quality of a cricketer solely based on domestic competitions. We will find many players who do well in the domestic arena, but can't really perform at a higher level.

"A team tours serve both the players and selectors to understand where they stand. When we get a lot of A team matches, it helps us identify certain skills and players, and then prepare them for international cricket," he added.

On the specific issue of age based selection, Bashar was equally direct, outlining a philosophy that keeps players under consideration for as long as they remain active, rather than ruling them out based on numbers alone.

"I have always believed that age shouldn't be a hindrance in selection. My policy is to keep a player in consideration until he has retired," he said, noting that most current selection decisions are short term rather than long term in nature.

Rubel's rise to prominence has been anything but conventional, having first attracted attention through domestic league cricket in Chattogram before earning a surprise opportunity in last year's SCL T20 competition.

That performance opened the door to first class cricket, and Rubel eventually found his way into the BPL, where his unusual bowling action and doosra delivery began drawing genuine national attention for the first time.

His timing could hardly have been better, with his standout Top End T20 showing coming just a week after Bangladesh's historic Test win over Australia in Darwin, staged at the very same venue in the Northern Territory.

Across the tournament, Rubel returned figures of 4 for 18, 3 for 25, 4 for 15, 3 for 30, 5 for 21 and 3 for 15, consistently troubling a field that mixed capped internationals with uncapped domestic talent.

Speaking to Daily Waadaa last week, Rubel addressed the rarity of Bangladeshi cricketers debuting after turning 30, expressing confidence that his fitness levels would allow him to defy that trend for several more years.

"Whatever my age, I'm still very fit, and I'll play for many more years if I avoid injury. In the last NCL fitness test, I finished first in my division," Rubel said, revealing he completed the required run in five minutes and 58 seconds against a target of six minutes and 40 seconds.

Rubel also credited regular bowling sessions in the national team nets with sharpening his skills further, explaining that the exposure to top level batters during those sessions had played a meaningful role in his recent improvement.