Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan's desire to play his farewell Test on home soil suffered a big blow yesterday when he was excluded from the 15-member squad for the first Test against South Africa, scheduled to start on October 21 in Mirpur.

After a drama-filled Thursday, where Shakib chose not to board a Bangladesh-bound flight from the UAE for security concerns and later on the day Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud revealed he had advised the cricket board to discourage Shakib from returning because of public anger, the selectors yesterday dropped the all-rounder and brought in uncapped left-arm spinner Hasan Murad.

"We have been informed that Shakib is unavailable for the first Test. He is at the end of his Test career but along with his experience, we still do not have someone of that calibre with both bat and the ball to replace him," chairman of the national selection panel Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu was quoted in a media release yesterday.

Even though it is certain that Shakib will not feature in the Mirpur Test, the saga is refusing to quieten down on social media, news portals or even in the streets.

As many as 80 to 90 fans of Shakib gathered at the main entrance of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at yesterday noon with banners, demanding Shakib's safe return to the country to play his farewell Test and also to stop encouraging mob violence against the 37-year-old.

Shakib's childhood coach Mohammad Salahuddin expressed sadness at how the situation is panning out, saying he deserved a shot at redemption as he had already apologised for his silence during the student-led people's movement in July-August.

"I have never felt so much anger and grief towards the people of the country as I am feeling today. As humans, don't we all make mistakes? If someone repents, he should be given another chance," Salahuddin wrote on Facebook yesterday.

"Today, they [Shakib and Mashrafe] are enemies just because they didn't put any status on social media… They have never harmed anyone, only helped people. They are not murderers," he added.

Meanwhile, another childhood coach of Shakib's Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, who is now a director at the cricket board, refused to comment on the issue at a press conference in Mirpur yesterday.

Law Adviser Asif Nazrul said that the public anger against the ace all-rounder was not unwarranted.

"There has never been a player like Shakib in Bangladesh's history," Asif Nazrul said during a programme aired on private TV station Channel I. "He could have been the most popular man in Bangladesh's history if he had gotten involved with a fascist government," he said.

"I just can't believe it… When people were being killed, when people were crying, were angry, and suffering everywhere, he posted that he was 'enjoying life at'—I don't know where. How could a human being do that?" he said, referring to a social media post made by Shakib's wife during the protests when they were in Toronto, Canada.

"I feel for him, but the anger against him doesn't feel unwarranted."