Shakib made Test captain again after Mominul quits ahead of Windies tour

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has handed the leadership of the Test team to Shakib Al Hasan after Mominul Haque quit captaincy to focus on batting earlier this week.

This will be Shakib’s third stint as Bangladesh captain. He first took over as skipper in 2009 at the age of 22 and returned to the helm once again in 2018 at 35 years of age, both times on West Indies tours.

In a meeting of the BCB board of directors on Thursday, the management also promoted in-form Litton Das to the rank of vice-captain, a position which was missing during Mominul’s term as skipper.

Although Shakib’s flare cricketing prowess and leadership ability leave no room for doubt, there was hesitation over getting the allrounder regularly in the Test team.

Since coming out of ICC ban in 2020, Shakib has appeared in only three Tests leading up to the last series against Sri Lanka on the account of family reasons and injury-related rest.

However, Team Director Khaled Mahmud, who is also a director the board, on Wednesday insisted that Shakib enjoyed playing Tests and was keen to always play in the prestigious form of the game.

Shakib was made captain in July 2009 after regular skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza got injured on the third day of the first Test. The southpaw led the Tigers for the rest of the game and was officially made captain in the following game.

He then established himself as one of the best cricketers in the world as he led Bangladesh to success, particularly in ODIs.

But he came under scrutiny after the team’s failure in the 2011 World Cup in their backyard and was subsequently removed from captaincy in August that year.

His second term as the captain ended in October 2019 over an ICC ban for concealing fixing offers.

The BCB was then forced to push the responsibility on an unprepared Mominul, who came under fire due to a recent decline in form with the willow. 

Shakib once again takes over as skipper on Bangladesh’s trip to the Caribbean Islands with the first Test slated for Jun 16 in Antigua.