Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan is sceptical about re-appointing Shaki Al Hasan as the next Test captain. The veteran all-rounder is the front runner to replace Mominul Haque with the incumbent captain option to step down from his post in order to focus on his batting.
Nazmul, who is expected to hold a board meeting on June 2 to make a decision in this regard, told Cricbuzz on Tuesday (May 31) that the board needed to sit with the all-rounder to know whether he is available or not for the longer format given he’s been fairly non committal about his long term plans in the format. He’s also missed several games for the team in the last few seasons.
Shakib made a comeback to Test cricket with the just concluded two-match Test series against Sri Lanka as he was unavailable since the Pakistan series. “Shakib can be a skipper in any format. But we need to know whether he will play or not (Test cricket regularly),” Nazmul told.
“If he says that he won’t go or choose a format then it will be a problem. Shakib was our skipper and there is no doubt about his captaincy. But we also need to be sure about his availability.
“He cannot make last minute decisions about his availability when he is the captain. We have to discuss with him first. We cannot make someone a captain on a whim and so have to take a well thought-out decision),”
Shakib, who led Bangladesh Test team on several occasions, had to give away the captaincy to Mominul Haque after he was handed a one year ban by ICC in 2019. Besides Shakib, Liton Das, in fine form, is another contender to replace Mominul as the leader of the Test side.
