Despite two whole days of play being washed off by rain, Bangladesh suffered a defeat by an innings and eight runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the second Test match against Pakistan, continuing their horrible form across formats.
However, a certain Shakib Al Hasan stood out from the rest, almost securing a draw for Bangladesh.
In the second innings, Sakib brought the pressure right back at Pakistan spinners, specially Sajid Khan, who took eight wickets in the first.
The ace all-rounder adjusted to a light back foot stance and played the bowl late, spoiling the plan of the Pakistan spin duo to pitch the bowl right in front of the Bangladeshi batsman and bamboozling them with the slightest of turns.
He made Sajid look ordinary until Mehedi Hasan Miraz got out playing another ‘unnecessary’ scoop in the second innings.
Shakib’s disappointment at Miraz was evident as soon as the umpire had signalled not out and Pakistan went for the review.
This sums up Shakib’s Test career in a nutshell, constantly being let down by his teammates when it mattered the most.
This brings in an obvious question, is the lack of support from teammates a contributing factor behind Shakib's indifference to the longest format?
Since his debut, the stalwart missed 23 out of 83 test matches Bangladesh played.
He missed 16 tests in the last five years, a stark contrast to the first 10 years of his career where he was unavailable in 7 test matches.
After Bangladesh defeated the mighty Aussies in a Test at Mirpur for the first and only time in 2017, the southpaw was available in only 8 matches of the longest format out of 26.
In 2017, he didn’t play the longest format at the South Africa tour as he went on a break citing mental and physical health reasons. Following this, he missed several tours due to injury and an ICC ban.
This year in May, Shakib opted out of the Sri Lanka tour for 2 test matches as he wanted to play the IPL for T20 world cup preparations.
So even the most hardcore Shakib fanboys could not accept it when he wrote a letter to BCB stating his unavailability for the upcoming New Zealand test series at Kiwiland.
Most recently, Shakib hinted at further breaks from international duties as the stalwart said it is close to impossible to play all three formats during the pandemic.
“Time has come for me to think about Test cricket, whether I will play or not. And even if I do, how I will play the format.”
This brings in another question, what would the already illustrated Test stats of Shakib look like if he were not so indifferent towards the longest format?
Let’s start with his Test stats in New Zealand, as many came up with a theory on social media that Shakib asked for a break as he is ‘afraid’ to play in tough conditions. Shakib averages a whopping 73.85 with the bat in Kiwi soil and his lone double century in Test cricket came in the country. Besides, he took 9 wickets in four matches.
In his last match against Pakistan, Shakib became the only sixth player in the history of test cricket to complete the double of four thousand runs and 200 Test wickets, a feat reached only by cricket greats like Sir Garry Sobers, Sir Ian Botham, Sir Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Jacques Kallis.
Shakib took only 59 matches to reach the double, fastest among the six. Shakib stands at 4027 runs with an average of 39.87 and 215 wickets averaging 31.30 after 59 matches.
Sobers scored 5385 runs and took 142 wickets after 59 Tests, scoring more than Shakib but well behind the Bangladeshi all-rounder in terms of wickets.
On the flip side, Botham took 267 wickets and scored 3266 runs from a similar number of matches.
South African great Jacques Kallis stood at 3894 runs and 112 wickets after 59, behind the Bangladeshi stalwart in terms of both wickets and runs.
Although Kapil Dev barely edged past Shakib with 238 wickets, he was well behind in terms of runs scoring 2398, having equal game time.
Hadlee took 288 wickets but scored almost half of Shakib after 59 matches with 2193 runs.
Stats indicate that Shakib Al Hasan had the opportunity to surpass these legends by the end of his career and establish himself as the undisputed greatest all-rounder of cricket.
But as if everyone but Shakib wanted this to happen. Maybe the ace all-rounder believes he doesn’t need stats to be on the island of relevancy at this point of his career.
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