Shakib Al Hasan’s request for a short-break from Test cricket has been accepted, Bangladesh Cricket Board’s Cricket Operations Chairman Mohammad Akram confirmed on Monday (September 11).
The all-rounder submitted a letter to the board on Saturday, citing this request and his desire to manage his workload. Upon receiving the written plea, BCB president Nazmul Hasan is understood to have held several meetings with the board high-ups to weigh the matter and subsequently okayed the request.
As a consequence of the development, Bangladesh will travel to South Africa for their two-Test series in late September without the services of the 30-year-old, who incidentally, was at the forefront of the team’s historic Test win over Australia in Dhaka (10 wickets and a half century). Shakib will however, continue to feature in white-ball assignments for country and club(s) during this sabbatical from Tests.
“Shakib wrote a letter to us asking for a six-month break,” Akram said. “He can miss the first Test against South Africa but if he wants, he can play the second Test. He will not be traveling with the team but he can tell us what he decides to do.”
Akram confirmed that Shakib’s decision to ease his workload was done with an eye on prolonging his career. One of the most decorated all-rounders of this generation, Shakib has featured in 51 Tests, 177 ODIs and 59 T20Is for Bangladesh during which he has scored 9785 international runs and taken 482 wickets enroute to becoming a vital cog in Bangladesh’s rise as a cricketing nation.
“We can’t always be thinking about us. We should also keep his fatigue into consideration,” Akram said.
