Shakib Al Hasan finally joined the practice session and met all of his teammates for the first time at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here today after being appointed as Bangladesh’s ODI format captain.
He returned home on Monday after playing the Canada Global T20 tournament and Lankan Premier League (LPL) but the last two days were hectic for him as he was busy with some promotional activities and shooting for TVC.
Upon his return to the practice session, he held a special meeting with the coaching staff and players. A BCB official said, in the meeting some special message was given like how they want to play against different opposition.
The cricketers performance in the practice session was also reviewed in the meeting after watching their videos. The information was collected through the GPS kit which was attached with players during their training.
This was the first time that Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) introduced GPS technology Tigers practice session.
The technology provided all kinds of information and the workload management of the cricketers like exactly how far a cricketer had run during practice, or what his heart rate was, even how many steps he had walked…all were transferred via GPS-technology to a laptop in the dressing room.
Officials said the information was as accurate as they expected.
Shakib captained Bangladesh in 47 ODIs between 2009 and 2011 before being sacked after a dismal Zimbabwe tour. He led Bangladesh in three more ODIs, the latest being in 2017, in the absence of MashrafeMortaza.
A 17-man squad for the Asia Cup will be named on Saturday.
The 36-year-old is now officially Bangladesh’s all-format captain but Nazmul believes it would be difficult for him to lead across formats.
Shakib, who is currently in Colombo, Sri Lanka to represent Galle Titans in the ongoing Lanka Premier League, had a chance to give his reaction during a match against Jaffna Kings when he was asked about his re-appointment as ODI skipper recently.
“It (captaincy) is nothing new to me,” Shakib told broadcasters in a dugout interview.
“It’s a great challenge for our team to showcase how good we became in the last four years…It will be a great opportunity for us to do well in this World Cup. I think we are a very good team. We are playing really well in the white ball format, so it’s time to show everyone how good we are,” he added.
Although Shakib had a mixed performance in the game – claiming 1-13 in his four overs and scoring only two runs – Galle won the game by seven wickets to keep alive their play-off hopes.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board earlier on Friday announced that the talismanic all-rounder will be their new ODI skipper.
The 36-year-old, who is also the current Test and T20I skipper of the Tigers, earlier led the Tigers in 50 ODIs between 2009 and 2017 and won 23 matches. Shakib also led Bangladesh in all three formats from 2009 to 2011.
