The greatest cricketer to play for Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan, has had quite an eventful career on and off the field, and is now primed for one last tilt at World Cup glory, writes Ben Gardner. This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
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At the 2019 World Cup, Shakib Al Hasan was many people’s pick as the unofficial Player of the Tournament. He passed fifty in seven out of eight innings, twice going on to a century, and became the first cricketer to score 500 runs and take 10 wickets in a single top-level ODI tournament. By October that year, he was leading a players’ strike over pay and the make-up of Bangladesh’s domestic system. A few days later, he was banned for 12 months for a series of anti-corruption breaches.
For most players, that would be a career-defining few months. Shakib calls it Wednesday. This is how Bangladesh’s greatest ever cricketer has always rolled. Not many cricketers have Wikipedia sub-sections for both ‘Disciplinary issues’ and ‘Records and achievements’, but with Shakib, any rough has always been balanced out by a whole lot of smooth. He’ll argue with the umpires, smash up the stumps, put himself on a collision course with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and then come out the next day and stroke a hundred like nothing’s happened.
Take, for example, a 2010 ODI against New Zealand, in which Shakib marched towards the sightscreen mid-innings and threatened to hit a spectator with his bat for the crime of holding up play. (As an aside, if only the ICC had the same impetus in trying to move the game along). Point made, Shakib returned to his crease, made a century, claimed three wickets, and wrapped up Bangladesh’s first ODI series win over the Black Caps, the best result in their history at the time.
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And yet, while for some all-rounders any extraneous circumstances can fuel their acts of heroism on the field, with Shakib you don’t get quite the same sense that one is feeding off the other. If Shakib’s antics can be explosive, his cricket exudes control. He is a throwback at No.5, relying on touch and ground strokes, working the gaps and picking his areas. With the ball, he keeps things tight, builds the pressure, and lets the wickets come to him.
It’s worth a quick run through the numbers, because in the conversations around the game’s great all-rounders, Shakib rarely gets his due. He’s often an afterword – “and of course, we can’t forget Shakib” someone will say, having until then forgotten Shakib – but he deserves to be at the heart of the debate. He and South Africa’s Lance Klusener are the only two ODI all-rounders to average more than 35 with the bat and less than 30 with the ball. In Tests, the difference between his batting and bowling averages exceeds Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev, and also that modern touchpoint, Ben Stokes.
If you’re looking for a landmark performance, seek out basically any Bangladesh win in the last 15 years – a personal favourite is the 2017 Champions Trophy, when a century on a golden, glittering Cardiff day against New Zealand saw Bangladesh make the last four of a world event for the first time. In that time they have moved from the lowest rung of the ladder, through plucky underdog status, to where they are now as unlikely but genuine semi-final contenders, with a joint-second-place finish in the ODI World Cup Super League a statement of their threat in subcontinental conditions.
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There have been times when some have doubted Shakib’s commitment to Bangladeshi cricket. Just over a year ago, Nazmul Hassan, the BCB’s graceless president, did exactly that when Shakib requested to be rested from a tour of South Africa, citing his “mental and physical condition”. But even if it feels as if Shakib will have a life after cricket outside of Bangladesh, with a family and a growing business portfolio in the United States, there should be little question of his dedication right now.
Having missed the 2023 IPL in part due to his commitment to his country, he now finds himself as Bangladesh’s captain in all formats, almost by stealth. He has captained intermittently, doing so in about one in four of his games since first taking the reins in 2009, but never for too long all at once. Now he has the chance to lay down a marker in that discipline too.
Coming into 2023, Shakib has seen and done it all, and is primed for one last tilt at glory. He has a team with a blend of youth and experience, a growing cadre of quicks, and even another all-rounder, in Mehidy Hasan Miraz, to pick up some slack. Expect Shakib to put together one of the all-time great tournament performances once again, or to lose his rag at a dodgy lbw call and storm off in protest. Or, somehow, to combine that all into one.
This article first appeared in issue 71 of Wisden Cricket Monthly, a World Cup special.
