So much to learn from Shakib: Soumya

After 44 days of cricket, we are just 2 days away from the much-awaited final of the World Cup. Be it England or New Zealand who win it on July 14 at Lord’s, one thing is sure, the game will have a new world champion. In all these days, we saw some unanticipated hits and some unexpected misses while we also saw those, who outlived the expectations. Making a comeback to the international cricket after a year-long ban, Australia opener David Warner impressed with his style. He was aggressive, throughout, as if he was there to prove a point. Shakib Al Hasan was a surprise package all together. Kane Williamson, as calm as monk, guided New Zealand to their second World Cup final with his brilliant batting. Mitchell Starc unleashed mayhem with his yorkers, while Jofra Archer proved his worth in his maiden World Cup appearance for England. A lot of them have impressed, but only one will take home the Player of the Tournament award. Here is a look at all those player who are in contention.

Shakib Al Hasan

Bangladesh failed to make it to the last four of the World Cup but Shakib Al Hasan was in form of his life. Shakib ended a prolific World Cup 2019 with 606 runs, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s record of the most runs scored in the group stage. The left-hander hammered two centuries and 6 half-centuries. Not only did he show his grace with the bat, the all-rounder also impressed with his spin bowling. Shakib scalped11 wickets for his side at an economy of 5.39. So this complete player is very much in contention for the player of the tournament, unless the ICC jury is in a mood to not hand the award to a player belonging to the team that did not quite contend for cricket’s greatest prize.

Rohit Sharma

With a World Cup record five  centuries in the 2019 event, India opener Rohit Sharma has been ahead of all other batsmen in the race. The India opener is the leading run scorer in the tournament with 648 runs from nine matches at an average of 81. Alongisde his five tons, he also has one half-century. Rohit was only 27 runs short of surpassing the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who leads the list of batsmen with most runs in a single edition of the World Cup, but he managed just a single run as India’s campaign at the World Cup came to an end with a semifinal defeat against New Zealand. Rohit was seen shedding tears then, but he may have something to smile about soon.

Mitchell Starc

Australia suffered their first semifinal defeat in a World Cup as hosts England crushed the five-time champions by 8 wickets to reach their first World Cup final in 27 years.

Although Australia’s World Cup journey ended, Mitchell Starc remains the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. The southpaw has picked 27 wickets in 10 innings at an economy of 5.43. Starc, also the player of the tournament in World Cup 2015, broke Glenn McGrath’s record for most wickets in a single edition of the showpiece event. The pacer also has two five-wicket hauls and two four-wicket hauls in this edition of the tournament to put a strong claim for his second player of the World Cup award in succession.

Good tidings are piling up for Bangladesh as the team prepare for their World Cup challenge starting with their opening match against South Africa on June 2 in London. The cricketing world knows that Shakib Al Hasan is the best all-rounder on the planet, but as if to remove any lingering doubts caused by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan briefly usurping the Magura all-rounder’s throne, Shakib was officially back to the top of the ODI all-rounder’s rankings yesterday.

Over much of the last decade, Shakib has usually been a fixture at the top of the all-rounder’s rankings in ODIs, Tests and T20Is, making him the gold standard as far as modern-day all-rounders are concerned.

Having beaten out the likes of Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan to become the fastest to the double of 3,000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets in November last year, Shakib now stands on the cusp of becoming the fastest -- by far -- to the ODI double of 5,000 runs and 250 wickets, which he stands to achieve at the earliest in his 199th match when Bangladesh take on South Africa. If he does achieve the mark on June 2, he would have beaten the next best on the list -- Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq by a whopping 35 matches. Shakib missed the tri-series final because of back spasms, but that just means that he is set to bring up the special record on the grandest stage of all -- not unlikely for a player who has risen to the occasion more often than not.

Shakib’s brief slip from the top was because of a glut of injuries in the recent past. A finger injury forced him to miss the entire tour of New Zealand earlier this year, while a flare-up of an older finger issue caused him to miss three ODIs against Zimbabwe and part of the Asia Cup last year. However, three matches in the Ireland tri-series -- which preceded Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign -- where he scored 140 runs with two half-centuries and took two wickets, was enough for Shakib to reclaim his spot at the top. He now has 359 points to Rashid’s 339.

Shakib is not resting on his laurels. In Leicester, where Bangladesh concluded an optional training camp yesterday, Shakib was one of the busier players, spending almost an hour in the centre wicket honing his batting. Judging by the rifle-shot echoes of his shots ringing out through the Leicestershire County Cricket Club, practice was going well for the all-rounder.

Having already gotten the immense confidence boost of winning their maiden multi-team ODI trophy -- that too undefeated -- Bangladesh will now head to the World Cup knowing that they have the world’s best all-rounder in their ranks, officially.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) issued a letter addressing Test and T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan yesterday, asking him to clarify why he had breached his contract by signing a deal with one of the country’s top mobile phone operators without informing the board.

On Tuesday, Shakib had inked an agreement with the national team’s former sponsors, Grameenphone, for an undisclosed sum at a time when he was also playing a pivotal role behind the cricketers’ strike for better pay and benefits.

According to BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury, Shakib was not supposed to sign any such deal for two reasons.

“He cannot sign such a deal for two reasons. Firstly, it is clearly mentioned in one of the clauses in the players’ central contracts that all players must get clearance from the board before signing any commercial endorsement. Secondly, there is a written memo through which all players were advised to discuss with the board before signing any deal with any telecom company,” Nizamuddin told The Daily Star yesterday.

BCB President Nazmul Hassan echoed similar sentiments earlier in the day.

“According to our laws, he was not in any way supposed to do that [sign the deal]. The telecom company and the player, both parties are aware of it. So, at first we need to give him a chance to clarify why he did it and that’s why we are serving him with an official letter. But one thing we know is that in no way he could do that -- it is completely illegal,” Hassan told reporters in Mirpur.

Hassan also rubbished any insinuations that the board would cut the premier all-rounder some slack in this regard.

Earlier in the day, Shakib met with Nizamuddin at the BCB office in Mirpur regarding the matter, but the 32-year-old came out of the meeting in a rather relaxed mood at noon before joining the national team on their second day of the training camp in preparation of the tour of India next month.