Bangladesh Cricket Board have confirmed that Shakib Al Hasan will be leading the Bangla Tigers for the upcoming Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup 2023 in India. Earlier, Tamim Iqbal had stepped down from his captaincy role thus the BCB were left with a choice between Shakib and Litton Das. They have thus decided to go with the former given his past experience of leading the Bangladesh team in previous tournaments. Interestingly, the all-rounder is the only captain who will still be leading his side from the ODI World Cup in 2011, when the marquee tournament was last held on Indian shores.
The star all-rounder had last led Bangladesh in an ODI fixture in 2017, and with the latest development, he becomes the all-format captain once again for the Bangla Tigers.
BCB president Nazmul Hassan announced the decision in a media briefing at his home in Dhaka.
“Shakib Al Hasan is the captain for the Asia Cup, New Zealand series and World Cup,” said Hassan.
Earlier, Iqbal had announced his retirement from cricket last month, only for him to make a U-turn after having a word with Bangladesh president Sheikh Hasina. Iqbal though is nursing a back injury and in his attempts to return back to full fitness he will miss out the upcoming Asia Cup but the highest run-scorer for Bangladesh in ODI cricket will hope to get to peak fitness before the World Cup in October-November.
“We will speak more to him when he returns to Bangladesh (from Lanka Premier League). We have to know his long-term plan. I spoke to him on the phone yesterday. But it is better if we talk to him in person since he is busy with a franchise league currently,” added the BCB supremo.
He also confirmed that Shakib may not continue as the all-format captain after he was handed Test and T20I captaincy last year.
“We will also talk about which format he will keep leading, whether it is all three formats or one or two of them,” stated Hassan. Given Tamim’s injury, Bangladesh have a huge gaping hole in their opening order however the rest of the squad has been ironed out Hassan confirmed.
“They have just one spot open. We still don’t know about Tamim Iqbal who is recovering from a back injury. We might trial one or two openers in the Asia Cup,” the veteran added.
In total, Shakib has led Bangladesh in 52 ODIs, along with 19 Tests and 39 T20Is.
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