Najmul ends stellar campaign on a high

Najmul Hossain Shanto has been a constant in Bangladesh fans’ criticism arc, especially in T20s, for the last couple of years.

His batting approach, which apparently looks like a conservative one compared to the high-adrenaline batting in T20s across the world, has seen his place in the Bangladesh national T20 setup questioned, some of which he toned down by becoming the Tigers’ highest run-scorer in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.

In the ongoing ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, Najmul has cemented his claim to the opening spot in the national team as the Sylhet Strikers batter ended the tournament as the highest run-scorer, and that too by some distance.

He finished on 516 runs, the most in this tournament and the highest by a Bangladesh batter in a single BPL campaign ever. He broke the record set by current teammate Mushfiqur Rahim, who had scored 491 runs in the 2019-20 season.

Najmul’s tally is the second-highest in a single BPL season, only behind South African Rilee Rossouw’s 558 runs in the 2018-19 season.

The left-handed batter had a stellar campaign throughout, scoring consistently and having a big say in Sylhet’s brilliant run throughout the tournament, and he did the same thing in the final.

His 64 runs of 45 balls, hitting nine fours and a six, gave Sylhet the base they required to score 175-7 despite losing Towhid Hridoy and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza early in the innings.

Najmul had some touch of fortune as in the first over, he was gifted eight runs by the Comilla Victorians fielders giving away two fours in overthrows. Then, he was dropped on 37 by opposition skipper Imrul Kayes.

He reached his fifty off 38 balls and looked set to go bigger but fell to Moeen Ali as he tried to shuffle and hit the off-spinner, resulting in his stumps being rattled.