Doubt over Shakib

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan was included in the Tigers' 16-member squad for the upcoming Test tour of Pakistan despite Bangladesh Cricket Board sources claiming that the 37-year-old's fitness for red-ball cricket would be taken into consideration before selection.

Shakib played in Bangladesh's last red-ball assignment in May when the Tigers hosted Sri Lanka for a two-match series and has featured in T20 cricket since then, including stints in the Major League Cricket in the USA, the Lanka Premier League in Sri Lanka, and a deep run in Canada's GT20.

Middle-order batter Shahadat Hossain Dipu was left out, while Mushfiqur Rahim and Taskin Ahmed returned to the side. 

The Tigers will leave for Lahore tomorrow and will train at the Gaddafi Stadium on August 14, 15, and 16 before the first Test begins on August 21. The second match will start on August 30.

SQUAD: Najmul Hossain Shanto (Captain), Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Zakir Hasan, Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Liton Das, Mehedi Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Nahid Rana, Shoriful Islam, Hasan Mahmud, Taskin Ahmed, Syed Khaled Ahmed

Bangladesh speedster Taskin Ahmed made an instant impact on his return to Test cricket after 14 months as he came up with a sensational bowling performance on the second day of the second Test against Pakistan in Rawalpindi yesterday. 

Taskin finished with 3-57, helping his side bowl out the hosts for 274 runs in their first innings within a day after the game finally started on the Day 2 after the opening day's play got washed out.

Taskin had taken a break from the longer-format earlier this year citing injury issues but after the end of the last ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA, he changed his mind and made himself available for selection for the Pakistan Test series.

The selection panel also showed faith on the experienced pacer as they picked him for the second Test squad but before that, they wanted to see how Taskin fared in the longer-version.

And for that, they played him in the second four-day match against Pakistan Shaheens where he bowled 15 overs and also dismissed Imam-ul-Haq in the first ball of his opening spell.

Similarly, the 29-year-old, who previously played 13 Tests since his debut in this format in 2017, tasted success almost immediately, going through the defences of Pakistani opener Abdullah Shafique with a splendid in-swinger in the last ball of the first over of the game after Bangladesh chose to field first.

Taskin, who came in as a replacement for the injured Shoriful Islam, set up Shafique brilliantly as he bowled his first five deliveries outside off, moving away from the batter, before finally pitching the ball on a good length and bringing it back sharply into the batter, hitting the top of off-stump.

"That wicket [Shafique's] was really enjoyable for me. First, I set him up with away moving ones and then in the last one I brought it back into him. That was intentional," Taskin told the reporters in the press meet after the end of the second day's play.

Taskin didn't get any more successes in his first spell where he bowled four overs but kept the pressure on Shan Masood and Saim Ayub, who went on to score fifties, and when he came back to bowl his next two spells, he carried on from where he had left off.

At one time, Saud Shakeel, the middle-order batter who scored a hundred in the opening Test, hit him for back-to-back boundaries. But Taskin had the last laugh, as he knocked over Shakeel's stumps in the same over to send him back to the pavilion.

Bangladesh kept taking wickets at regular intervals from the second session onwards. With Pakistan quickly running out of wickets, Salman Agha, the No.7 batter, decided to try and hit some boundaries against the second new ball and smashed Taskin for two sixes in consecutive overs.

Taskin, however, kept baiting Salman, who made 54, into going for big shots and eventually his plan worked as the batter mishit a pull shot and got caught at fine leg by Shakib Al Hasan and Mehedi Hasan Miraz soon wrapped up the innings by completing his 10th five-for in Tests.

"Overall, our bowling unit has done really well. We could have done better. I'm working on everything, as I have been playing for a long time, to adapt to the format quickly. It's my responsibility as an experienced and senior bowler.

"We have to bat really well. We have to comeback well in the second innings. Nothing is over yet but it was a good day for us which could have been even better."

Bangladesh skipper Nigar Sultana Joty praised her batters' performance after their seven-wicket win over Pakistan in the final ODI of the three-match series at the at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Friday.

The win gave the Tigresses a 2-1 series win and propelled them to sixth on the ICC Women's Championships standings.
 
 The top six teams on the table will qualify for the 2025 World Cup directly, while the other two spots will be filled through qualifiers, in the eight-team tournament which will take place in India.
 
 Bangladesh have 11 points from 12 matches, with three wins, a solitary tie, four losses and as many no results.

"We are moving ahead keeping in mind that we want to avoid playing in the [World Cup] qualifiers. The more points we can collect, the better our chances will become to play the tournament directly. Our focus is just that going into every series," skipper Nigar Sultana Joty told the reporters after the game yesterday.

A poor batting display let Bangladesh down in the opening match last week when they were bundled out for 81, while bowlers bailed them out in the second match where they posted 169. The batters finally showed up yesterday as a record 125-run opening partnership for Bangladesh from Murshida Khatun and Fargana Haque set up a 167-run chase.
 
Fargana scored a 113-ball 62 as she put away five fours while Musrshida hit six boundaries during her 106-ball 54. Both, however, couldn't see their team through as the services of skipper Joty were required. She scored a 25-ball 18 and was aptly aided by Sobhana Mostary's 30-ball 19 as the duo wrapped it up for Bangladesh.
 

"The batting department responded well. In the previous match, Pakistan struggled to chase a small total but the same did not happen today which is why we clinched an easy victory," Joty said.
 
 "The way Murshida and Pinky were playing, I think they should've finished the match. They were at the wicket for a long time and our plan is for set batters to always play as long as possible.
 
 "The first match was indeed alarming for us. The biggest thing for us is the series win, it is a big achievement for us. The show of character from the entire team is a huge success," she added.

The Bangladesh bowlers did the job again for their side, restricting the visitors to 166 for nine. 

Pakistan's opener Sidra Ameen scored an unbeaten 143-ball 84 but had little support as Bangladesh's left-arm orthodox Nahida Akter outshone the four other spinners in the side, picking up three wickets for 26 runs, while Rabeya Khan scalped two.

Bangladesh star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said he preferred to make short-term plans rather than long-term ones, considering that the 37-year-old is in the twilight of his career.  

Shakib left for the USA earlier today to take part in the upcoming season of Major League Cricket, starting on July 6. He will play for the Los Angeles Knight Riders and will then make the journey across the border to play for Bangla Tigers Mississauga in the Global T20 in Canada which will begin on July 25.

Following the back-to-back franchise tournaments, Shakib will be expected to return to national colours in August when Bangladesh will tour Pakistan for a two-match Test series.

"I haven't really planned much. And I don't really have that much time to plan for three-four years. I think that it is good to plan for three months, or six months. So up until now, my planning goes as far as the Pakistan series," Shakib told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport before leaving for the USA on Tuesday.

"I don't have a plan regarding myself. At this moment, I'm looking forward to the two T20 tournaments, one is Major League Cricket for which I'm heading to the USA followed by the Global T20 League in Canada. I'll play these back-to-back tournaments and then will see where things are. After that, there is the Test series against Pakistan. So, my planning is about these three competitions."

Shakib has been going through a lean patch with both bat and ball. While his batting has left a lot to be desired in the past two ICC events (the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2020 T20 World Cup), his ability to strike with the ball, which has rarely come into question throughout his career, has taken a nosedive. 

In an abysmal campaign in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, Shakib managed just 111 runs in seven matches at a strike-rate of 106.73. He did score a fifty against the Netherlands in their Super 8 run in the tournament but that was all that one would remember from his campaign. With the ball, he picked up three wickets at an economy rate of 7.50 and it was not until Bangladesh's fourth match of the group-stage against Nepal that the left-arm spinner was able to register his first wicket. He took two in the match and scalped one in a Super 8 fixture against India meaning he went wicketless in five matches in the major event. 

The interesting part about Shakib's statement was that he was not particularly keen on long-term plans and it won't be a surprise if he is picky when deciding which matches to play in the upcoming series. There have been a few instances in which Shakib has opted out of Tests in the recent past. Moreover, his sporadic absences have often left the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) struggling to explain the reasoning behind his unavailability. So, BCB would have a hard time planning ahead with Shakib in the mix but the loop of the board chasing the Bangladesh star for his availability may very well continue.

There has been a lot of debate on social media and elsewhere regarding Liton Das's stumping by Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Friday's Asia Cup final. The decision was very close, as multiple angles of the sequence showed, before the third umpire finally ruled in favour of India. Here is what Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza had to say about this: "It is hard to tell. At one point we felt it was not out. I think the third umpire can say it better. Maybe it will be discussed later."