Mehedi had a dream debut series as a test player. After the remarkable 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup there was never any doubt in the team management's mind that they had found themselves an exceptional talent - in fact, in an echo of Australia's unveiling of Shane Warne on the 1993 Ashes tour. He was expected to debut a month ago for Afghanistan ODIs but was deliberately omitted to keep him as a secret from England.
On 20 October 2016, Mehedi made his Test debut against England. Even though he is an off break bowler, he opened the bowling in his maiden Test innings. Ben Duckett, another debutant in the same Test match, became Mehedi's first test wicket. In the same match he also became the seventh and youngest Bangladesh player to take a five-wicket haul on debut in a Test. In his 2nd test match he became the sixth bowler to take three five-for in his first two Tests and took 19 wickets in the Test series and became the 9th player overall and 1st from Bangladesh to win the man-of-the-series award in his debut test series.
Even though he had a horrible series as a batsman scored only 5 runs in 4 innings at an average of 1.25, Mushfiqur Rahim lauded the performances of the 19-year-old, and insisted Mehedi still has much more to offer. He said " Mehedi is a good batsman also. He didn't show that now, but hopefully in future he will be a great all-rounder for Bangladesh".
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