Bangladesh’s player Shakib Al Hasan addresses a press conference ahead of the 2nd Test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park Stadium, in Kanpur
| Photo Credit: PTI

Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan on Thursday (September 26, 2024) admitted that travelling to India is the toughest Test assignment and pitches don’t make much difference due to the sheer quality of the hosts.

Bangladesh are still searching for their first Test win against India since 2000, when they first clashed in Dhaka.

The two teams have played 14 times against each other with India winning 12 contests while the remaining two ended in draws.

“If you look at other countries, every now and then they will lose one or two games. But in India, you hardly see them losing in Test matches. So yes, I would say you are right,” Shakib told reporters when asked if a tour to India was indeed the toughest assignment.

“We won against them in the ODI series in Bangladesh, we were very close to win a game against them in a Test match in Bangladesh. In Test cricket, we haven’t got the success that we are looking for. Tomorrow we will have another opportunity.

“I thought in patches we played really well in Chennai. But having said that, finishing the match in three-and-a-half days wasn’t ideal for us. We felt like we were a better team than that. So, we need to show that in tomorrow’s match,” he added.

Bangladesh did extremely well to win the Test series 2-0 in Pakistan before coming to India, and Shakib drew a comparison between the two teams.

“Pakistan is a relatively new team. In experience, I would say, if you look at the matches they played and if you look at our team and the matches we have played, we have got more experience than them. And in Test cricket I think that is a massive factor.

“If I talk about India, they are the number one team in the World Championship at this moment. They are probably unbeatable at home. I saw a stat somewhere where for some 4000 days they have been unbeaten in India. So, that shows how good they are in India.

“They have been doing well outside India as well. Any country that came to India finding it difficult, we are no different there. But having said that, we have to play really well against them to be able to show the fight that we feel like we can put on,” he noted.

Asked if a spin-friendly pitch in Kanpur would help their cause, Shakib was clear that tracks are not a big factor when it comes to competing against quality teams.

“When you play against a team like India, Australia, England, pitches don’t matter much because they will obviously have their weapon with which they can attack us.

“They will have quality spinners, they will have quality fast bowlers, they will have quality batsmen. So, I don’t think pitch will have any effect. It’s just we have to perform better than what we have done in Chennai.”

Shakib exhorted the young Bangladeshi batters to score big for the team to be competitive.

“If I talk about batting only, I think there has been an improvement. If you see from the first innings to the second innings. First innings we bowled out for about 150.

“In the second innings, we scored about 250. If we can score 350, somewhere there, I think that will be a huge improvement. And 350 to 400 on first innings will give us a lot of confidence and the dressing room will feel a lot more comfortable,” he said.

Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan addresses a press conference on the eve of second test match at Green Park stadium, in Kanpur on September 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is the leading all-rounder of his era, whose laundry list of achievements is rivalled only by his disciplinary infractions and his brief political career under his country’s loathed ex-leader.

Shakib, who announced his international retirement on Thursday (September 26, 2024), was the driving force of his team’s rise to become serious international contenders, enthralling fans through both star turns and scandals.

The 37-year-old remains the only player to have topped the International Cricket Council all-rounder rankings in all three formats simultaneously.

Selectors have tolerated his transgressions and occasional defiance as the price of sporting glories that in 2022 saw him named his country’s greatest athlete by eminent Bangladeshi sports journalists.

“Cricket in Bangladesh is divided into two eras: before and after Shakib Al Hasan,” veteran sports reporter Montu Kayser told AFP last year.

“It’s like before and after Christ. He is the Jesus Christ of Bangladesh cricket.”

Of the many controversies in Shakib’s career, none have dogged him like his decision to contest sham elections in January under autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina.

A student-led uprising ousted Hasina last month, with the leader fleeing the country for neighbouring India.

The cricketer was in Canada playing in a T20 league as he lost his lawmaker job during the revolution. He has not returned home since.

Along with dozens more members of Hasina’s Awami League, a murder case has been filed against Shakib that accuses him of culpability in the police killing of protesters.

Shakib has not spoken publicly about the case, but his teammates have rallied around him.

“As a teammate and a brother, I will be there during his tough times,” veteran batsman Mushfiqur Rahim said on Facebook last month.

“I do not support the false allegations made against him.”

Star emerges

Shakib made his international debut aged just 19 in 2006, as a batting all-rounder against Zimbabwe.

He had already become a star by the time he hit a fifty against India in the following year’s World Cup in a David-and-Goliath victory still spoken of reverentially by Bangladesh fans.

His remarkable 7-36 in a losing effort against New Zealand sealed his Test spot in 2008.

Two years later he led Bangladesh to their first ODI series win over a leading cricket nation, with a 4-0 home sweep of New Zealand.

Shakib struggled under the pressure of the captaincy so early in his career, and was sacked after a disappointing tour of Zimbabwe in 2011.

By 2014, his relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) reached its lowest ebb.

Shakib’s ill-discipline had seen him threaten a spectator with a bat. He then made a lewd gesture to a television crew and was banned by the BCB for three ODIs.

A running dispute with coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and a decision to compete in the Caribbean Premier League without BCB clearance led to a six-month suspension.

Shakib’s sanction was lifted early after apologising and pledging to “behave in a more mature way”.

“Nothing can be more painful than staying away from cricket,” he said.

‘Many thorns’

Shakib scored a century and took 10 wickets in his comeback Test against Zimbabwe, becoming only the third cricketer to achieve the all-round feat after Imran Khan and Ian Botham.

In 2017, he scored a century to bail out Bangladesh from a precarious 33-4 to a remarkable five-wicket win over New Zealand in Cardiff.

Shakib reached his pinnacle at the 2019 World Cup in England, where he made 606 runs and claimed 11 wickets, an all-rounder record for the tournament.

But he also continued to court controversy.

While Shakib was leading a players’ strike for better pay in 2019, the ICC slapped him with a two-year ban for failing to report corrupt approaches by bookmakers.

Soon after his return, he was again named Test and Twenty20 skipper, but in 2022 the BCB forced him to abandon a partnership with an offshore betting site.

The following year he was a guest at the opening of a boutique jeweller in Dubai, despite Bangladeshi police informing him the store’s proprietor was a fugitive accused of murder.

Kayser likened Shakib to a “king with many thorns in his crown”.

“But,” he added, “the thorns cannot stop him from ruling his world”.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan addresses a press conference ahead of the 2nd Test match between India and Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium, in Kanpur, on September 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan on Thursday (September 26, 2024) announced his retirement from T20 Internationals with immediate effect and also said that the second Test against India will be his last if his country’s board doesn’t give him a farewell match against South Africa at home.

His final international game for Bangladesh will be in the Champions Trophy which is likely to be held in UAE and Pakistan.

The 37-year-old great, who featured in 129 T20Is for Bangladesh will, however, continue to play in franchise leagues.

“I have played my last T20 match in T20 World Cup. We have discussed this with the selectors. Looking at the 2026 World Cup, this is the right time for me to move out. Hopefully, BCB will find some great players and we will perform well,” said Shakib on the eve of the second and final Test against India here.

Shakib, who has played 70 Tests, scoring 4600 runs and taking 242 wickets might just play his last Test in the North Indian industrial town in case the cricket board can’t assure him of his security after being accused of murder although he wasn’t even in the country at that time.

“I have expressed my desire to play my last Test in Mirpur to BCB. They agreed with me. They are trying to organise everything so that I can go to Bangladesh.

If that won’t happen, the match against India in Kanpur would be my last in Test cricket,” he added.

Shakib was named as an accused in a murder case back home during the political unrest that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He was a member of Parliament from her party, the Awami League.

Shakib made the announcement while interacting with Bangladeshi media but spoke in English following a request from the Indian journalists.

In an unexpected turn of events, Shakib was named in an FIR in a murder case related to the civil protests in Bangladesh last August.

The case pertains to the death of garment worker Mohammed Rubel, whose father, Rafiqul Islam, filed the complaint on August 7.

The 37-year-old Shakib indicated that he may not travel back home after the current series in India, if he can’t be promised safety.

“Going back to Bangladesh is not a problem but leaving is. My close friends and family members have concerns (about my safety), I hope things are better, well and there should be is a solution to it.” In January, Shakib had won an uncontested election to become a member of parliament for the then-ruling Awami League party. He was criticised for not speaking up for the student community during the protests.

Many Bangladeshis reportedly raised slogan against Shakib when he played in Pakistan. Even non resident Bangladeshis hurled abuses during a private T20 league, the video of which became viral on social media.

“I have 8 games to go in ODIs, and the Champions Trophy will be my last.”