A few days have passed since the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan named Shakib Al Hasan as the captain for the Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup. Board officials, ex and current players, experts, fans– all have given their two cents about the new appointment. The only person who is yet to say anything about it till now is Shakib himself.
The all-rounder is currently in Sri Lanka for the Lankan Premier League and he has not given a reaction to being named the ODI captain once again.
What could the all-rounder be feeling right now? Pride, as he has a chance to lead the country in the World Cup; or maybe a sense of responsibility, as the entire country is now looking at him to lead the team to new heights in the World Cup.
Or maybe, he is experiencing déjà vu as once again the reins of the national team have been handed to him following a surprising set of events and the country’s cricket fraternity is hoping he will pull a rabbit out of his hat as the captain in very short time, something he has done a few times in the past.
Mashrafe’s knee buckles and Shakib becomes captain
The board had earmarked Shakib as a future captain early on, naming him as Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s deputy at just 22 years of age in 2009.
The plan was for Shakib to spend a few years as the vice-captain, gain more international experience and then finally take over from Mashrafe when he is ready.
But as we all know now, fate had other plans.
Mashrafe and Shakib’s first assignment as captain and vice-captain was an away series against the West Indies.
Not much was initially expected of the Tigers in the series. But after a pay dispute between the West Indies players and its board led to all frontline Caribbean cricketers opting out of the series, the hosts had no choice but to field a second string XI, making Bangladesh the favourites in the series.
But in the very first Test, disaster struck. While bowling, Mashrafe injured his knee and had to be taken off the field.
Shakib, a vice-captain in his first assignment with less than three years of experience in international cricket, was now leading the team.
Bangladesh had to play the rest of the Test with essentially 10 players. The severity of the knee injury ruled Mashrafe out of the rest of the tour, meaning Shakib had to lead the team in all the matches.
Most young cricketers would’ve crumbled under this pressure, but as we all know now very well, Shakib is not like most cricketers.
The young all-rounder flourished under the pressure, leading Bangladesh to a 2-0 clean sweep in the Test series.
Captain Shakib rose to the occasion in the second innings of the second Test, taking a five-wicket haul and scoring a brilliant counter-attacking 96 off 97 balls to ensure Bangladesh won the series.
Bangladesh also swept the ODI series 3-0, with Shakib was named the player of the series.
When Mashrafe returned from his injury the following year, Shakib remained as captain in Tests while Mashrafe reclaimed captaincy in ODIs.
The pacer captained Bangladesh in an ODI series against England in England. But in his first assignment as captain in home against New Zealand, Mashrafe again got injured.
Once again, Shakib had to perform the duties of captain midway into a match. And once again, Shakib triumphed as the captain.
The victory in the first ODI was the beginning of a 4-0 clean sweep against New Zealand, which remains as a cherished series win for all Bangladesh cricket fans.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that in that series, New Zealand didn’t lose to Bangladesh, it lost to Shakib.
The southpaw was both the highest wicket taker and the top-scorer in the series, taking 11 wickets and scoring 213 runs. The Kiwis simply couldn’t cope with Shakib’s brilliance.
After that performance, it was impossible to think of anyone else as the Bangladesh captain in the 2011 ICC World Cup.
However, Shakib’s leadership stint ended that very year. After the team failed to reach the knockout stages and also lost a one-off Test and an ODI series against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe, Shakib was sacked as captain.
Shakib steps in as skipper in T20s
In August of 2023, Shakib has been given the captaincy for the Asia Cup, which will begin later this month, and for the World Cup in India, which is less than two months away.
Getting handed the captaincy with two important tournaments in the horizon is not ideal. But for Shakib, it’s nothing new. Just 12 month ago, he was in almost the exact same position with the only key difference being that last year it was T20s instead of ODIs.
Shakib was named as the T20 captain of the Bangladesh team in August of 2022 for the Asia Cup, which began later that month, and for the T20 World Cup in October.
Shakib was the obvious choice as captain after Mahmudullah’s ignominious exit from the post given his extensive experience in the format.
The scale of the task in hand for Shakib was massive. After the horrible showing in the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup, where Bangladesh failed to win any matches in the main phase and lost to Scotland, not much was expected from the T20 team.
Shakib’s main task as skipper was to ensure Bangladesh didn’t suffer any such embarrassments in the Asia Cup in the UAE and the T20 World Cup.
In Asia Cup, he failed to take Bangladesh into the Super 4, as the team lost to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka to exit from the group stage.
In the World Cup in Australia, Shakib first accomplished the bare minimum as the captain, securing hard fought victories over the Netherlands and Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh got pummeled by 104 runs against South Africa but pushed India to its limit in a rain-hit match in Adelaide and lost to Pakistan in a virtual knockout match where a few umpiring decisions went against Bangladesh and were eliminated from the group-stage.
Bangladesh didn’t do anything remarkable in the T20 World Cup. But with Shakib as captain, the team played with a more positive attitude. And had rain not interrupted the Bangladesh innings in the India match when Litton Das was galloping towards the target and had a few umpiring decisions gone in Bangladesh’s favour against Pakistan, Bangladesh could’ve made it to the knockout phase of the tournament for the very first time.
Since then, Bangladesh have gone from strength to strength in the format, winning seven of the eight T20s they have played since the T20 World Cup, which included three wins over England at home.
However in 2023, Shakib won’t satisfy the fans with near misses. ODI is Bangladesh’s strongest format and many fans are expecting great things from Bangladesh in both the Asia Cup and the World Cup.
The pressure is mounting on the maverick all-rounder to deliver as a captain and a player. Will Shakib crack under the pressure this time or will he emerge triumphant like he has many time in the past, time will tell.