'Shakib can't grip the bat'

Ending all speculation and controversies about his finger injury, Bangladesh Test captain Shakib Al Hasan is all set to return to action after selectors included him in the 13-member Test squad for the first Test against the West Indies.

The match will be held in Chattogram from November 22.

There was a lot of confusion about the gravity of his injury as he was forced to return home from the UAE midway through the Asia Cup in September.

However, Shakib returned from Australia last month following treatment with a big smile and had then informed that he expected to be back on the field within three months. He added that he wanted to test whether cricketing activities would cause pain to the finger that he had initially injured in January this year.

The controversy had mainly surrounded a possible surgery, but the 31-year-old informed after his return from Australia that there was no possibility of undergoing the knife over the next six to 12 months, adding that the best outcome would be to be able to play without surgery. He also stated that the injured finger would never be a hundred per cent again, but it was nothing that would stop him playing cricket.

Shakib returned to training earlier this week after a month-long rehabilitation programme and started batting last Wednesday. Chief selector Minhajul Abedin informed yesterday that the all-rounder was fit.

Although opener Tamim Iqbal is yet to recover from his injury, Minhajul added that the left-hander has a chance of being available for the second Test against the West Indies, to be held in Mirpur from November 30.

Soumya Sarkar and 17-year-old off-spinner Nayeem Hasan were the other inclusions in the Test squad, which was trimmed to 13 players from the 15-member squad that had been named against Zimbabwe. Liton Das, Nazmul Hossain, Abu Jayed, Shafiul Islam and Nazmul Islam were all dropped.

Still just in its 19th year of Test cricket, it is understandable that the media and fans hail records that are Bangladesh-specific and once in a blue moon, records like Nayeem Hasan becoming the youngest cricketer in all of Test cricket to take five wickets on debut are rightly celebrated with gusto.

Conversely, no one has dared talk about a Bangladesh player taking his place among Test cricket's hallowed pantheon of greats. Yesterday, by becoming the fastest all-rounder to achieve the double of 2,000 Test runs and 3,000 Test wickets, Shakib Al Hasan established himself as one of the undoubted greats.

Unlike young Nayeem's record or Shohag Gazi becoming the only player to take a hattrick and score a hundred in the same match -- both of which are records born of brilliance on a day or two, Shakib's record has been built over a career extending back over 12 years, a prerequisite for being called great in cricket's oldest form.

He just pipped England's greatest all-rounder Ian Botham -- whose replacement the country are still pining for 26 years after he played his last Test -- to the mark by one match. The other three great all-rounders of the 1980s -- Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee -- make up the top five but Kapil comes closest on 73 matches to Shakib's 54.

Other all-timers like Sir Garfield Sobers and Jacques Kallis come lower down the list. That is not to say that Shakib is a better player than the names mentioned -- Sobers and Kallis are two of the greatest batsmen to play the game; Imran and Hadlee two of its greatest bowlers. But Shakib's numbers, longevity and consistency make it hard to argue that there has been a better all-rounder -- the strictest definition of the term being that the player will have to justify a place as both a specialist batsman and a specialist bowler. Unlike many feted contemporary and past all-rounders, Shakib's split between batting and bowling ability is as close to 50-50 as it ever was in Test history.

Yesterday, the day Bangladesh won the first Test against West Indies in Chattogram, Shakib had Kieran Powell stumped to reach 200 wickets and achieve the historic double.

"Maybe it feels a bit [special]. When we win the match, I feel happier. If we lost, the questions would have been about the loss instead of the achievement. So the two are related," said Shakib, famously unimpressed by personal achievements, when asked after the match how it felt to be on the top of such an august list.

It may be considered coincidence, or by some as a divine construction of symmetry, that Shakib reached his 100th wicket against West Indies, exactly six years ago and at about the same time of day. It is no coincidence, however, that in another rarity for all-rounders, his run-scoring and wicket-taking has progressed at a parallel pace. When he took his 100th wicket Shakib had 1818 runs to his name. Six years on, he has 3727 runs at the time of his 200th wicket -- both numbers roughly doubled.

It is no coincidence; just the painstaking construction, brick by brick, wicket by run, of Bangladesh's first truly great Test career. 

A scan done yesterday on ace Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan suggested a Grade 1 strain on his left thigh, placing him in doubt for today’s World Cup match against Sri Lanka at the Bristol County Ground.

Shakib went for a scan yesterday evening, and Bangladesh team technical manager Khaled Mahmud said that it was gathered from an image of the scan that there could be a Grade 1 strain resulting from the injury Shakib sustained during the match against England in Cardiff on Saturday. However, a decision on the severity of the strain and consequently, his availability for today’s match will only be taken once the scan is reviewed by a radiologist in the morning today.

“It looks like a Grade 1 strain,” Mahmud informed yesterday. “We are not yet sure whether he can play tomorrow [Tuesday]. It doesn’t look serious. Shakib was fine yesterday, but seemed to be feeling it more today.”

The team management are also not hurrying into a decision on Shakib as rain is forecast today in Bristol, so the match might be delayed or not take place at all.

“Shakib Al Hasan suffered a left thigh strain while batting during the World Cup match against England. He underwent a precautionary scan today [Monday] in Bristol. We are waiting on a specialist assessment and report,” physio Thihan Chandramohan informed through a press release yesterday.

Shakib, who scored 121 in the 106-run defeat on Saturday and received treatment from Chandramohan early on in his innings at the Cardiff Wales Stadium, was present during team practice but did not bat or bowl at the Bristol County Ground on Monday, which is not an alarming sign as he has been known to take things easy on the eve of a match.

Shakib received treatment from the physio at the end of the eighth over of the innings on Saturday, and while he hobbled during runs for two or three overs after that, he appeared to bat unfettered till he was out in the 40th over. 

Shakib’s lowest score in the three matches so far has been 64 against New Zealand. He is still the highest scorer in the World Cup with 260 runs. He has also taken three wickets, so losing him ahead of a crucial encounter could be a major setback. Having lost two of three matches, Bangladesh will be desperate to get a positive result against a lower-ranked side to keep their race to the semifinals on track.

It is a twist of fate that two different Asia Cups have been witness to two stages in Bangladesh's evolution. Along with evolution, of course, comes growth amid turmoil and Bangladesh have had much of both in the 2012 tournament and the ongoing one in the UAE where they will contest for the trophy against overwhelming favourites India.

In 2012, Bangladesh were rank outsiders but they surprised all pre-tournament forecasts by outclassing both Sri Lanka and India before enduring the heartbreak of losing the final by a mere two runs against Pakistan. 'So near, yet so far' was the soundtrack of heartbreak then, but years later cricketers and fans alike look back at that tournament wistfully as the point where Bangladesh cricket matured into a force to be reckoned with.

Six years later, however, it is a different evolution but it has come with the same growing pains. For long, even after their previous step up, the Tigers had been a team that could come up with stellar performances but tended to lose the plot when there were setbacks. And it was a certain kind of setback that hurt them the most: a loss of form or absence of one or more of the five cricketers who have thus far lifted Bangladesh to its greatest heights: skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad. Incidentally, all of these cricketers were part of their first real ascension to cricketing prominence in 2012.

Now, however, the two cricketers from that bunch who have done more than any other to change perceptions and expectations of Bangladesh cricket -- Tamim and Shakib -- are out of the Asia Cup with injuries. In 2012, Shakib was the player of the series and Tamim had hit four consecutive half-centuries.

With Tamim already having flown home on September 18 with a fracture to his left hand, Shakib's absence was a shock to the team on the morning of their virtual semifinal against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Yet, just as the team had somehow found a way to win Sunday's match against Afghanistan without Tamim to stay in contention for the final, they roared into the final with a bowling and fielding performance worthy of Tigers against Pakistan to win by 37 runs around the time that Shakib was unpacking his bags in Dhaka.

"Both tournaments have their separate respect and value. In 2012 we could not win anything, we won rarely," said Mashrafe in the pre-final press conference at the hotel yesterday, a rest day after the exertions of the Pakistan match in the searing heat. "We won against big teams on the odd day. Now we were at a stage that whenever we won big matches, our best performers were Shakib, Tamim and Mushfiqur on most occasions. Mustafizur [Rahman] too. But to come to this stage without our two best players is a big achievement. The boys can feel proud of it, but there is still one match, if they can give their best shot I hope it will be a good match."

It was not too long ago that this was not the case. In South Africa last October Bangladesh surrendered without a whimper without Shakib in the Tests, and in the ODIs without Tamim in the last two matches. In the home tri-series final against Sri Lanka in January, they lost the plot after Shakib left the field with injury -- the same one to the left little finger that requires surgery now -- and succumbed to defeat not just in that match but in the following Test and T20I series.

Evolution, of course, retains the toughest and best bits from the past and Bangladesh have retained the toughest component in the skipper, who has inspired the team with bold decisions throughout the tournament, and the masterful Mushfiqur -- whose batting throughout has compensated for top-order failures. Regardless of who wins today, Bangladesh will be richer for having evolved into a team that can overcome the harshest setbacks and come out on top.