Shakib Al Hasan

A player widely seen as Bangladesh’s finest cricketer, and one of the greatest all-round exports in modern cricket, Shakib Al Hasan is a larger-than-life character who has been the talismanic figure for Bangladesh cricket throughout his long career, controversies and all.

An excellent left-arm orthodox spinner and an even better all-format southpaw batter, Shakib Al Hasan role as the lead bowler, batter, and captain for Bangladesh in some parts of the last two decades makes him one of the most respected all-rounders of the 21st century, rubbing shoulders with names such as Ravindra Jadeja or Ben Stokes.

Coming through the ranks

Shakib Al Hasan’s cricket journey began with tape-cricket in his youth, but once he made his way over to proper cricket ball matches, his rise was meteoric. He was quickly in the running for Bangladesh’s age-group squads, appearing for the U-19 team even before his 16th birthday.

He would face immediate success in first class cricket in Bangladesh, establishing himself independently as a leading batter and also a leading bowler in the domestic circuit.

International impact

A series against Zimbabwe was seen as the ideal time to blood a young Shakib into international conditions, with the all-rounder making his debut in 2007 in the Test match.

Fans from across the world would sit up and take notice the following year when he helped the Tigers run through New Zealand’s batting in Chittagong, taking 7 wickets in one innings. He was soon named as Test captain at just the age of 22, taking the reins for a tour of the West Indies in 2019.

His spell would generate immediate success for himself and the team, as he scored an excellent fourth-innings 96 to help Bangladesh chase down a target in Grenada and generate their first overseas Test win.

One of the world’s best

Shakib Al Hasan was never hesitant to improve his game and ply his trade in a variety of competitions across the world. While showing up for and racking up the numbers for Bangladesh, he also became the country’s first-ever representative in the County Championship in England, playing for Worcestershire.

He would also represent IPL teams such as Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad with distinction, including winning both the 2012 and 2014 editions of the tournament with KKR.

Shakib Al Hasan is one of only two cricketers to have played in all nine T20 World Cups so far, alongside Rohit Sharma. He is the only cricketer with over 2500 runs and 100 wickets in all three formats of the sport, as well as holding the distinction of being only one of three players with 7000 runs and 300 wickets in ODI cricket.

Big-stage excellence

Shakib also has a stellar record in ICC tournaments where the lights are the brightest. In particular, he was one of the finest players in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England, where he finished as third-highest scorer with 606 runs, behind only Rohit Sharma and David Warner.

Controversy would strike soon after as Shakib was suspended from cricket for a year for failure to report a spot fixing approach, the largest in a long line of incidents where Shakib’s name has been in the news for reasons beyond pure cricket.

Nevertheless, for all the clipped-up hot-headed moments, Shakib will always be best-remembered for the quality of his cricket throughout his career and the manner in which he has excelled across formats and across disciplines of the sport, with his records speaking for themselves.