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All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is the frontrunner among some possible names who could take the change of Test captain after Mominul Haque expressed his desire to step down.
The third meeting of the board of directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (current tenure) will take place today at the BCB office located inside the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium premise.
According to BCB director Tanvir Ahmed, the agenda of Test captaincy is not on the official list as Mominul just expressed his desire to step down on Tuesday which gave them only two days’ time before the meeting. But he also said that the BCB president can raise the issue in the board meeting if he wants.
Tanvir did not want to disclose the agendas in front of the media but said that there will be various agendas including procurement, logistics, and administrative decisions which are regular for an organization.
Though he avoided the captaincy part, some other directors clearly said that the captaincy issue will be the key point of Thursday’s meeting where the main discussion will be whether to look forward with a new captain or to go back to a trusted option which is Shakib Al Hasan.
Mominul was made Test captain suddenly when Shakib was found guilty of not disclosing multiple conversations with a bookie in 2019. The allrounder was the captain of Bangladesh in Test and T20, in his sudden unavailability Mominul was made captain just a few days before the start of the World Test Championship mission for Bangladesh, where the Tigers went to India for the first-ever full tour where they played two Test matches.
Mominul told the BCB President Nazmul Hasan on Tuesday that he is not willing to carry on as the Test captain as the pressure of captaincy is hampering his batting.
Though the decision-makers at the BCB are considering a few names for the next Test captain, more or less Shakib’s name is coming up despite the uncertainty of his availability in red-ball cricket.
Khaled Mahmud, the team director of the national team and also a director at the BCB told the media on Wednesday that Shakib is now taking Test cricket more seriously, “Shakib always wants to play Test cricket. I don’t know why the general perception is he is not willing to play Test matches. Whenever I talked to Shakib on this topic, he said he enjoys Test cricket most. If Shakib wants, if he is willing to lead then if the board decides to give him the captaincy I think that will be a great change”. he told the media on Wednesday.
Shakib is officially over 35 years old and he is at the finishing lap of his career, considering the reality the board might also look at someone new like Liton Kumar Das or Mehidy Hasan Miraz, though Mahmud is not fully convinced about the youngsters “ Liton is very introvert. Has a clear head but I like a captain who is an extrovert. Someone who can lead from the front. But at the same time handling the dressing room and team culture is also very important” said the former captain.
“ Miraz, Liton or Shanto (Nazmul Hossain)..many probables are there. But I think it’s too early. A lot of points to be discussed. We will go for the best option, for someone who can take the Bangladesh Test team to the next level”, Mahmud told the media.
The former all-rounder also believes that if Shakib becomes captain again, that will help the team a lot,
“ Shakib is a very experienced cricketer. I believe he enjoys Test cricket a lot. He bowled a lot of overs in the last two Test matches in extremely hot weather. He wants to play for three more years. If he gets the responsibility, he must do something for Bangladesh cricket. The way he mixes up with everyone in the team, I think it will be great if he is made the captain again”. said Mahmud on Wednesday.
