Shakib named Bangladesh captain for Asia Cup and World Cup

Shakib Al Hasan will captain Bangladesh in the Asia Cup and the ICC World Cup, confirmed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan on Friday.

“Shakib has been made captain for the Asia Cup and the World Cup,” Nazmul said. “The squads for the World Cup and the Asia Cup will be announced tomorrow (Saturday). For now, the selectors will name a 17-member squad for the Asia Cup.”

On 3 August, Tamim Iqbal stepped down as the captain of the ODI team. BCB had been searching for a new captain since then. On 8 August, an emergency meeting of the board directors was called to select the new captain. However, that meeting ended without any formal declaration.

But it was learnt that the ball was in Shakib’s court about captaincy. If Shakib was willing to take on ODI captaincy while remaining as the captain in Tests and Twenty20s, the BCB was willing to appoint him.

Litton Das and Mehidy Hasan Miraz were also brought up in the conversation for captaincy. In the end, however, Shakib was handed the responsibility.

This will not be Shakib’s first time as the ODI captain. He has led Bangladesh in 50 ODIs till now. He has last captained the side in ODIs in 2017. He was the full-time captain from 2009 to 2011. After that, he occasionally captained the ODI side when the regular captain was unavailable.

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