Not just like Shakib

Cricket is a cruel game. And it was crueller for even one of its best exponents. You are dominating one day, but you can easily find yourself as ordinary as anybody else on the next day. Looking for example? Look at Bangladesh's champion all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan in the first Test against Pakistan at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna.

At the end of third day's play on Thursday, the bowling figures of the left-arm spinner were 31 overs 3 maidens 122 runs and nothing in the wicket column. This is a kind of statistic that hardly goes with his performance in his 38 Tests.

With no malice intended it just doesn't match the champion bowler who took a ten-wicket haul at this very ground when Bangladesh played against Zimbabwe six months ago.

If anybody wants to suggest that Zimbabwe are not Pakistan, who are a very good Test team, this is for their understanding that let us reflect on what Shakib did when Bangladesh last played against Pakistan in Dhaka in 2011.

He scored a brilliant 144 in the first innings and took six wickets -- he had a match haul of seven -- in that Dhaka Test that Pakistan won by seven wickets.

Shakib is the kind of player you can't take your eyes off of whenever he is out in the middle. He is by far the top performer for Bangladesh. Unfortunately, the last two days have been about struggle that he has hardly been associated with. He scored a struggling 25 runs and when it was his turn to prove his words "our bowling is better than Pakistan's" right, he failed to live up to his billing.

The left-arm spinner also went on record by saying that what he needed was to find his rhythm back and the sooner the better. Sadly though, he was not in any sort of rhythm and was duly punished whenever he erred his line and length. And his inability to put any kind of pressure played a big part in the performance of other bowlers.

An ineffective Shakib has certainly provided plenty of pleasure in the opposition camp and his rival Mohammad Hafeez made that no secret while speaking at a press briefing.

"Shakib is the most important player in the Bangladesh team. We had a plan against him that we have executed well. And I have attacked him whenever I got the opportunity," said a beaming Hafeez, whose strike rate against Shakib was 85.7 compared to his overall strike rate of 67.46. He scored 57 runs off 67 balls against Shakib.

It's true that Shakib was not in any sort of rhythm with the ball and to be honest he has not been that deadly even in the preceding one-day series. He has actually not been playing the longer version cricket for the last six odd months, which perhaps played some part in his bowling performance. He refused to accept this the other day, but it will be wise for him to review his own assessment for his own sake in particular and for the Tigers in general.

There might be one more good reason of 'mental and physical fatigue' in Shakib's case that captain Mushfiqur Rahim wanted to address, but we want to believe that he will come back strongly, as he did against the same opponents four years ago.

His previous worst bowling figures of 41.5-7-121-0 were against Pakistan in Chittagong in 2011. And everybody knows what he did next in Dhaka.