Nazmul Hasan, president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), announced on Friday (August 11) that Shakib Al Hasan will lead Bangladesh in one-day internationals in the Asia Cup and the World Cup.
Shakib will lead the team in both the Asia Cup and the World Cup. The squads for the World Cup and the Asia Cup will be revealed tomorrow. Nazmul told reporters at his home on Friday that the selection committee will choose a team of 17.
After Tamim Iqbal’s resignation as captain on August 3, the position became open. Cricbuzz claimed before that Shakib will likely become captain across all three forms at least until the World Cup, despite the fact that Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan were still in the running for the ODI captaincy.
The president of the BCB previously said that the board was waiting to hear from Shakib before deciding whether or not to make him captain. The 36-year-old will take over immediately in preparation for the two major international competitions.
Nazmul did note that a long-term decision on whether or not Shakib should lead across formats was not yet made. We haven’t discussed a permanent leadership role with him yet, but once he comes, we’ll have a better idea of his availability and may discuss it more. We need to speak to him because he may feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of leading three forms at once.
We didn’t want to bother him today since he has a game, as he is currently out of the nation playing for a team (in LPL) and has some engagements there. But until the World Cup, he will be playing, and Shakib will lead the team.
“After talking with him, we will decide whether he will lead for long period across format or he will leave any format (as captain), and we will take a decision in this regard after his arrival,” he added.
He remarked, “There is no question about his potential, but what is impressive is that during the last one year no one is as serious regarding cricket as him,” despite his prior scepticism.
Also, Nazmul assured everyone that Litton would remain the team’s vice captain and take charge in Shakib’s absence. Long-term leadership choices, however, have been tabled for the time being.
In the event that Shakib al Hasan is unable to participate, the team’s vice captain, Liton, will take over as captain. If we think about the future in the long run, we may come up with alternative names like Mehidy Hasan. “Now that Mushfiqur isn’t leading the side, and after Tamim resigned and Shakib steps down, what will happen, and other names will also come up,” he remarked.
The 36-year-old is the current Test and T20I captain, and he has also captained Bangladesh in 50-overs cricket. He led the team in the 2011 World Cup. Nazmul said that the selecting committee waited to announce the team because they were undecided about who would serve as captain.
“They haven’t spoken with me when they will announce the squad, but they are expected to announce the squad tomorrow and the problem was that unless there is a captain and without consulting with the captain, it is difficult to name the squad,” he stated.
He added, “The selectors make a big squad and later take inputs of coach and captain,” explaining that the difficulty was that they hadn’t been able to talk with the captain until today, albeit the coach had arrived the day before.