Bangladesh’s captain and talisman Shakib Al Hasan is fully fit and will be available to play in the Tigers’ curtain raiser in the World Cup against Afghanistan.
This news, confirmed by the stand-in skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto, will be a great relief to the Bangladesh fans.
How did Shakib get injured?
Shakib Al Hasan supposedly got injured while playing football before his team’s first warm-up game against Sri Lanka. He subsequently didn’t take part in the warm-up games. However, the team management didn’t open up in detail about their superstar’s status.
Shakib talks up Bangladesh's chances at World Cup 2023
The entire Bangladesh held their breath though, like it often does with Shakib-related news, especially with the World Cup just on the horizon. Shanto’s confirmation would calm a lot of nerves in Dhaka, Chittagong and across the country.
Shakib Al Hasan: An all-time World Cup great
Shakib Al Hasan has achieved some incredible feats throughout his glittering career and for many, he is the greatest allrounder to ever play the 50-over game.
Several stats certainly back him, including the one that says he is the fastest to the double of 7000 runs and 300 wickets.
As you can expect, the great man has left a giant mark on the grandest stage of all, he is the only player to score 1000+ runs and take 30+ wickets in the World Cup. For context, nobody else with 30+ wickets has even 700+ runs.
Shakib Al Hasan is the only cricketer to have scored 1000 runs and picked up 30+ wickets in ODI World Cup.
— Cricket.com (@weRcricket) September 30, 2023
Shakib was the third highest run-getter in the 2019 World Cup with 606 runs. He had also bagged 11 wickets in the tournament.#ShakibAlHasan | #Bangladesh | #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/sfgMfk95Va
Bangladesh’s poster boy also put in what could be defined as the greatest individual performance in a single edition of the tournament, when scored 606 runs and took 11 wickets, numbers barely believable by any standards set by anyone else.
In other words, when having a conversation about the best players in the history of the World Cup, Shakib Al Hasan is perhaps the very first name that is bound to come up.
The last dance?
Following a few days of curious and unwanted controversy involving two Bangladesh stalwarts Shakib and Tamim Iqbal, the all-rounder spoke in an explosive interview, telling T-Sports that he could be retiring post-Champions Trophy in 2025.
If that is the case, then this could be the last dance of the great man; thus despite all the drama that saw Tamim Iqbal being dropped, the entire team, and the entire nation would want to do something for and with Shakib Al Hasan.
If there is one thing that we know about the once-little kid from Magura, it is that he likes to lead and fight from the front. With actions, words and performances, basically in every possible way; even if it meant bans and controversies.
Would have been very anti-climatic if that fighting leader had not been fit to lead his team from the beginning of perhaps the last great battle of his glorious career, wouldn’t it?
