Najmul Hossain Shanto appointed as all-format captain of Bangladesh for 1-year

Bangladesh opener Najmul Hossain Shanto has been named as the captain of the team in all three formats. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced after the meeting they conducted at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Monday.

Bangladesh were led by Shakib Al Hasan in the ODI World Cup 2023 after Tamim Iqbal stepped down as the captain of the side. The Bangladesh Cricket Board has also appointed Gazi Ashraf Hossain as chief selector whereas Hannan Sarkar has also been appointed as a selector.

Najmul Hossain Shanto also led Bangladesh during the ODI and the T20I series against New Zealand which was held in December 2023. At one end, Bangladesh were able to display a decent performance on the tour and won 1 ODI match out of three whereas they were able to level the T20I series by 1-1.

Najmul Hossain Shanto appointed as the captain of Bangladesh for 1 year

Bangladesh Cricket Board chairman Najmul Hassan Papon told the reporters after the meeting, “We discussed at length about captaincy… The board has decided to appoint Nazmul Hossain Shanto as captain for all three formats for this year.”

Bangladesh have gone through a lot of instability in their team during the last 1 year.

During the ODI series against Afghanistan, Tamim Iqbal who was leading the team in the ODI format, announced a shocking retirement from international cricket. However, he soon overturned his decision after having discussions with former captain Mashrafe Mortaza, BCB president, and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

Tamim Iqbal was given a rest from international cricket and Litton Das took over as the captain of the side for the rest of the Afghanistan series. However, later Shakib Al Hasan was given the captaincy for the upcoming tournaments such as the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.

Bangladesh displayed poor performance in both tournaments and were ruled out after displaying a flop performance in both competitions.

However, there was also a rift between Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, who took back his name from the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup 2023 squad as he didn’t want to bat down the order. Shakib didn’t like Tamim’s behavior and termed it as ‘childish’.

Shakib Al Hasan also didn’t perform well during both tournaments and was diagnosed with a retinal ailment in his left eye. The eye issue began during the 2023 ODI World Cup.

In the seven ODI World Cup 2023 matches, Shakib Al Hasan could only muster 186 runs at an average of 26.57. With just two victories from nine games, Bangladesh finished in eighth place, putting on an amazing showing for the tournament. Shakib returned to action during the Bangladesh Premier League 2023 and played for the Rangpur Riders.

On the other hand, Najmul Hossain Shanto has played a total of 95 international matches for Bangladesh and has scored 3253 runs at an average of 29.84. He has scored seven hundreds and 14 half centuries wherein his highest score is 163 runs. Shanto would be aiming to get Bangladesh back on track.