Shakib Al Hasan says he is not thinking about T20I captaincy

With the conclusion of Bangladesh’s tour of Sri Lanka, Mashrafe Mortaza’s era as captain of Bangladesh in the shortest format of the game has ended. Mortaza retired from T20Is after the second match of the 2 match series, hence leaving the captaincy position vacant. Being vice-captain in the limited overs for Bangladesh Shakib Al Hasan, is seen as the obvious choice to take over the captaincy from Masrafe Mortaza.

Mashrafe will remain as captain of Bangladesh’s ODI side, having highlighted a need for T20Is to be used to develop young talent and would be keen to lead the side in the Champions Trophy.

Shakib Al Hasan who is the world no.1 all-rounder in the ICC T20I rankings said that he isn’t thinking about ‘captaincy’ right now. “Actually I do not know anything in this regard and to be honest I am not thinking about captaincy at all. To me, the most important is to be with the team and contribute.”- Shakib Al Hasan as quoted by BDcricket.com

Shakib added that right now he is more focused about next assignment which is Indian Premier League. “Right now what I am looking at is Indian Premier League. I cannot gather exactly when Bangladesh will play their next T20I match”

Masrafe Mortaza has led the team well in ODIs as well as T20Is, so replacing him won’t be an easy task for Shakib Al Hasan who has been arguably the best player Bangladesh has ever produced. The all-rounder has scored 3678 runs and taken 265 wickets in 233 matches long career T20s which includes franchise cricket.

Despite an illustrious career, Shakib cannot boast of having an impressive record as the captain for Bangladesh. He has led Bangladesh only in 4 T20Is in 2009 losing all the 4 matches. But Bangladesh has shown a steady improvement ever since then and would hope to continue this improvement under new leadership be it Shakib or someone else.