Shakib returns to Bangladesh amid talk of Test captaincy

NEWS DESK

Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has returned home following a medical checkup in Singapore.

Although he was supposed to go to the USA to spend time with his family after the checkup, he returned to Bangladesh, which further brightened his possibility to replace Mominul Haque as Test captain.

After BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon hinted that Mominul would have to choose one between captaincy and batting given his current bad patch, the rumours of his possibility to loss captaincy got paced up.

Mominul has been going through a serious lean batting streak of late, reaching double digit figures only three times in the last 15 innings, which also put an adverse impact on his captaincy.

However, Shakib has been fine physically and mentally, confirmed BCB chief physician Dr Debashis Chowdhur.

“He had a medical checkup done after feeling weak physically. He has no injury or other physical problems as we have seen so far. We’ll tell you better about his physical condition after going through the reports,” he said.

It is learnt that Shakib has already given his consent to lead the side in the longer version as the BCB high ups are keen to take the load off from Mominul.

The ace all-rounder is believed to sit with the BCB president in this regard very soon after which the announcement will come.

Mominul was given captaincy hurriedly once Shakib was banned from the cricket for two years in 2019 due to his failure to report corrupt approaches from the bookies to ICC.

Under Mominul’s captaincy, Bangladesh played 14 matches and won three including a remarkable Test win against New Zealand earlier this year. Before being banned, Shakib also led the side in 14 matches and won three.

Shakib however will leave the country for West Indies with the Bangladesh team from Dhaka, instead of the USA as it was planned earlier.

Bangladesh will play two Tests, three ODIs and as many T20 International in their tour of West Indies.