The Bangladesh Captain Shakib Al Hasan revealed his retirement plans for all three formats saying that the Champions Trophy 2025 will be the final tournament in his international career.
Shakib Al Hasan reveals his retirement plans
Shakib Al Hasan opened on his retirement plans saying, he could retire from Tests after the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 and will be quitting T20Is after the T20 World Cup in 2024. He became Bangladesh’s ODI captain after Tamim Iqbal stepped down and was sidelined from the squad with his injury. He was named as the captain for the Asia Cup 2023 and the upcoming World Cup 2023.
Bangladesh has recently completed their three ODI match series against New Zealand and is preparing before the warmup games. He led the team for the three-match ODI series against the Blackcaps marking their defeat 2-0.
When he spoke on the interview he said, “The 2025 Champions Trophy for ODIs and the 2024 T20 World Cup for T20Is. Tests may be sooner. Maybe (after the World Cup),” Shakib said. “I will retire all at once, but I will stop playing each format one by one. I will announce my retirement after the 2025 Champions Trophy.”
“Given the current reality, I am captain only till the World Cup. Not a day more,” Shakib said. “I resigned from the captaincy on the 17th [of September]. I informed Papon bhai and emailed the CEO that I didn’t want to be the captain. The reasons were the same when I didn’t want to captain ahead of the Asia Cup.
I don’t think my captaincy is adding value at this stage of my career. I wanted to just bowl my ten overs, give my best in fielding, and do my batting.
“The easiest thing to do for me would have been not to take the captaincy. When he offered me the job, I immediately told him I didn’t want to do it in this situation. At this age, I didn’t want to take this pressure. I want to smile, enjoy my game, perform for Bangladesh.
“[Papon] described the situation to me. A captain has to do the job on and off the field. When I learned that the BCB, coach, and team management were unanimous in their decision about me, then I took the captaincy,” he concluded.
Bangladesh will be playing two warmup games ahead of the World Cup 2023. They will be facing Sri Lanka on September 29 and will be facing England on October 3 at Barsapara Stadium.
