bdmetronews Desk ॥ Shakib Al Hasan has claimed he is “not mentally prepared” nor “interested” in being the Test and T20I captain of Bangladesh, despite continuing to hold the roles.
The 32-year-old was superb as vice-captain of the one-day team at the Cricket World Cup earlier this year, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs in the group stage.
Shakib also became the first player to score 500 runs and take 10 wickets in a World Cup tournament.
But reverting to the role of captain in other forms of the game is not a prospect that fills Shakib with delight as he waits for the country’s younger players to take on more responsibility.
“I am not even mentally prepared to lead in Tests and T20s,” the all-rounder said to newspaper Prothom Alo.
“I am not really interested in leading in any format. I can focus on myself if I am not captaining, which would help the team.
“But the team is not in a good shape, so I understand that I have to lead to get it back on track.”
Shakib explained: “I want to see the younger lot to take responsibility. We [Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim] got captaincy at a very young age, but they have now turned 26, 27.
“Unless you give them responsibility, you won’t know what they can do. The World Test Championship and T20 World Cup are up ahead, so we should plan for the next four years.”
Shakib believes the struggles of ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza at the World Cup proves his point about the extra responsibilities hindering individual performances.
“I had the belief that we could go further in this World Cup and it may have been possible if we had contributions from everyone,” he said, with Mortaza only claiming one wicket from eight games.
“When a player doesn’t perform, he thinks more about himself than the team, which creates the problem. I think it happened in Mashrafe bhai’s case.
“It was a big issue, for himself and the team, that the captain wasn’t performing. The captain has to perform, but we were behind in that aspect.”
Bangladesh face Afghanistan in a Test match starting at Chattogram on September 5.
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