After a week or so of drama, intrigue, and mystery, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has managed to make a decision on their new One-Day International captain, and it was unsurprisingly Shakib Al Hasan.
While Shakib had been the leading candidate for the role, BCB mentioned Liton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s names too, and the smog was only darkened through that, which happened after an emergency meeting of its directors last Tuesday.
However, on Friday, before BCB officially issued a press release regarding Shakib’s return to ODI captaincy on a permanent basis for the first time since 2011, BCB President Nazmul Hassan, in the garage of his residency in Dhaka, announced that Shakib will captain Bangladesh in the upcoming tournaments.
“Shakib is the captain in both Asia Cup and the World Cup. But I have not yet talked about him regarding long-term captaincy. We will discuss that after he returns to Bangladesh. Actually, captaining in all three formats will be a burden on him. We have a lot of games, so we need to speak to him,” Nazmul told the media.
The scenario is similar to Shakib getting his Twenty20 International captaincy a year back as the ace all-rounder also took over the side right before the Asia Cup and a couple of months before the T20 World Cup after Mahmudullah Riyad was axed for the position.
This time around, BCB was left in a troubling position with Tamim Iqbal’s decision to resign,
“There is nothing last-moment with Shakib being appointed captain. We talked to Shakib yesterday (Thursday) before appointing him. We had no confusion among us regarding it. I had previously said that he is the obvious choice. Still, when you are appointing someone skipper, it’s important to talk to them and know about their thought process.
“But the thing that happened this time, we were completely unprepared for it. No other country in the world can do this. I have heard many people calling it a lack of planning. What planning can we do about who will retire when and come back when? Nobody can plan out such a situation,” Nazmul said.
Previously, the board president had questioned whether Shakib would play for two more years, hence the hesitancy over handing him the long-term captaincy. However, Shakib’s reign, for now, will only be till the World Cup, and Nazmul believes that there is nobody more serious than Shakib for the role.
“There is no doubt about Shakib’s potential. The question about Shakib, to me, was how serious he is. Now I’m seeing that nobody is more serious than him. He is playing continuously. He went to Canada, then Sri Lanka, and now the responsibility as captain. I feel that he is totally focused on cricket and that is a plus point for us. So, there is no question about his ability,” the BCB president said.
The question, though, remains whether Shakib will be the captain of all three formats in the long term, especially considering his age of 36 years and his continued popularity in franchise leagues across the globe.
Nazmul disclosed that the decision on that will only arrive after speaking to Shakib in detail, which will happen once he returns from the Lanka Premier League, where he is scheduled to be playing until August 20, if his team Galle Titans reach the final.
“We will discuss with him and decide whether he will captain the side long-term or in all three formats or in just two. When he returns, we will talk,” he said.
After deciding on their captain, Bangladesh can now finally announce their squad, which they will do today at 9:30 AM at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium after the team is reviewed by Shakib and head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.
The questions regarding the squad are mainly circling around Tamim’s replacement, a race where youngster Tanzid Hasan Tamim is leading. The other talking point is number seven, for which Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain, and Shak Mahedi Hasan are the candidates.
