Shakib to play in all formats: BCB president

Bangladesh’s newly appointed Test skipper Shakib Al Hasan has assured the cricket board that he will be available for selection in all formats from now on. Shakib gave this assurance to Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan before becoming the Test captain for a third time on Thursday.

Shakib has not been regular in Tests in recent times. Since returning to international cricket in 2021 after serving his one year ban, Shakib has featured in only five out of the 13 Tests the Tigers have played.

Shakib’s apparent ‘reluctance’ to play Tests was a concern for BCB when they were considering him for Test captaincy.

But board president Nazmul Hassan said that he is convinced about Shakib’s commitment to Test cricket, “After the talks I’ve had with him, definitely (I’m assured).”

Not just Tests, the board now has a clear idea about Shakib’s availability in Bangladesh’s future series, “He is only uncertain for the Zimbabwe series after the West Indies tour. After that he will be available for all matches in all formats. He has already said he will play regularly in Tests. This was our only criteria.”

The first time Shakib skipped a Test series was in 2017, when he opted out of the South Africa tour due to fatigue. From then on, Shakib has skipped quite a few Test series for a variety of reasons.

Shakib became Bangladesh’s Test captain for a second time in 2018. He remained the skipper till October 2019, when he was banned by the ICC for a year for keeping contact with bookmakers.

The board has not decided how long Shakib would stay at the helm in his third term.

“It’s difficult to say how long he will stay as captain. Until further announcement, Shakib and Liton (Das) will continue as captain and vice-captain respectively in Tests. We have not set the length of their terms.”

The outgoing Test captain Mominul Haque was appointed as skipper overnight after Shakib was handed the ICC ban. After Mominul stepped down, the captaincy mantle has returned to Shakib.

Nazmul defended the board’s decision to hand back the captaincy to a player who had been banned by the ICC during his previous tenure as captain, “His matter was a bit different, it wasn’t like others.”