Shakib questions his indispensability

In the third One-Day International against Ireland in March, Shakib Al Hasan neither batted nor bowled, an unforeseen event in the country’s cricketing history since the all-rounder started his wonderful career.

In the Test against the same opponent, Shakib was not that uninvolved but still his participation, in the two innings Bangladesh bowled, was below expectations as he bowled only 16 overs, with three in the first and 13 in the second. With the bat, though, Shakib starred in the first innings with an exquisite 87.

The Bangladesh captain picked up two wickets in the second innings but the other bowlers did their job pretty well, gulping up the other 18 Irish wickets, although Shakib not bowling enough came into question because of the Irish effort on the third day, where Bangladesh only managed four wickets, with Shakib bowling only six out of the 90 overs on the day.

The left-arm spinner not bowling was so perplexing that even the Tigers’ fast-bowling coach, Allan Donald, had no answer to it.

Shakib, though, had one. When asked after the match, Shakib dished out a question himself, about his indispensability in Bangladesh’s bowling attack as he believed that the Bangladesh bowlers were good enough to pick up 20 wickets, which they displayed by taking 18.

“No, there is no reason (behind not bowling too much). There is no rule that someone must bowl. If you have 5-6 weapons, you don’t need to always use all of them.

“Does it mean the Bangladesh bowling attack does not function without me? We have enough bowlers to take 20 wickets, I have that belief in them, and they showed why,” the Bangladesh skipper said.

While Shakib affirmed his belief in the bowlers, he did not take such a stance for the batters after Bangladesh scored 359 in their first innings of the Test, a score considered subpar considering the friendliness the wicket was offering to the batters throughout the match.

“No, we still don’t have that (scoring 400 against any opponent),” he said.

Shakib has had a pretty turbulent time in the last couple of weeks as he saw his application for a No-Objection Certificate to go and play in the Indian Premier League from the start denied, which led to him opting out of the tournament, though he cited a family emergency as the reason behind his exclusion from the mega-event.

“It was a good opportunity (playing in the IPL). The World Cup is in India, it would have been great if I could play there. But a family emergency is a family emergency,” Shakib said.

The all-rounder’s omission from the IPL put forth his participation in the ongoing Dhaka Premier League, where his side Mohammedan SC are struggling with only two wins in seven games.