Shakib Al Hasan creates new records in Chittagong Test

Veteran Bangladeshi opener Shakib Al Hasan has been an integral part of the national side for a long time now. Team Bangladesh has seen some serious growth in the recent times. Shakib’s contribution to this herculean rise of the team has been immense. Recently, his all-round heroics in the first Test against Australia at Dhaka had helped Bangladesh register their first ever win against the Aussies in Test cricket.

Now, after the conclusion of the second Test, Shakib Al Hasan finds himself in the record books again. Albeit the hosts lost the Chittagong Test against Australia, Shakib’s personal work yielded him two records. On the penultimate day of the Test, Shakib scalped the wicket of Matt Renshaw towards the fag end of the game. The Australians needed only 87 runs to win and Renshaw’s departure did not hurt them at all.

It was the crucial first innings lead of the visitors combined with a reckless batting show by the hosts in the second innings that set the tone for the Aussie win However, for Shakib, it was his 50th wicket at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. He became the first bowler in world cricket to have taken 50 wickets at the venue. Interestingly, Shakib also has picked up 50 wickets at the Mirpur Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium as well.

Double Distinction

With the wicket of Renshaw in the recently concluded Chittagong Test, Shakib Al Hasan became only the third player in the history of the game to have more than 500 runs and 50 plus wickets at two or more different cricket stadiums. The other legendary players in this elite list are former English all rounder Ian Botham and former Pakistani all-rounder Imran Khan.

Talking about the most runs at the venue in Chittagong, the Bangladeshi skipper Mushfiqur Rahim has 998 runs to his name. He is closely followed by Tamim Iqbal with 803 runs at the venue, while Shakib has aggregated 707 runs at the stadium thus far.