‘Nothing to answer to anyone’ - Shakib Al Hasan responds to Virender Sehwag’s scathing remarks

Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag didn’t mince words as he called out Shakib Al Hasan after his flop performances in Bangladesh’s first two games in the T20 World Cup. Sehwag believes that the all-rounder was not offering much to the team and should retire from the format to allow others to perform and make a significant contribution.

Then, it didn’t take Shakib much time to answer Sehwag with his bat as he played an important knock of unbeaten 64 off 46 against Netherlands as Bangladesh won by 25 runs and moved an inch closer to the Super 8 spot. Meanwhile, after the match, Shakib responded to Sehwag’s comments stating that he had no answer for such remarks and expressed his desire to get better in the remaining matches.

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“A player never comes to answer anyone else. A player's task is to bat if he is a batter, contribute to the team, bowl well if he is a bowler as getting wickets sometimes also depends on luck, and if he is a fielder then to save runs and take the catches that come his way,” Shakib told reporters.

“There is nothing to answer to anyone.  I think when a current player is not being able to contribute to the team as much as is expected of him then it usually invites a lot of questions, and I don't think it is a very bad thing,” Shakib said.

It was important for someone from the top four to bat throughout the innings: Shakib

After the game against Netherlands, Shakib noted that it was important for one of the top four batters to stay in the crease until the end. Bangladesh were reduced to 23/2 when Shakib came out to bat and the team needed something special from him. He was happy to contribute and noted that the bowlers chipped in well, especially Mustaflizur Rahman and Rishad Hossain.

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“It was important for someone from the top four to bat throughout the innings. Happy with the way I contributed with the bat. It wasn't an easy wicket at the start of the innings. We held our nerves, put on a decent total. I won't say it was a winning total, but it was a challenging total. Bowlers chipped in perfectly, especially the Fizz and Rishad,” Shakib said.