Shakib Al Hasan Appointed New Bangladesh Captain For Asia Cup 2023 And Cricket World Cup 2023

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Friday appointed veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan as their new ODI captain for both the Asia Cup 2023 and the ICC men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Apart from the two marquee events, Bangladesh will also face New Zealand in a white-ball series in late September before travelling to India for the Cricket World Cup 2023 beginning on October 5.

“We have appointed Shakib as the captain for the Asia Cup and World Cup. The World Cup and Asia Cup squads will be announced tomorrow. The selectors will pick a squad of 17 members,” said Nazmul Hassan, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president.

Shakib has taken over from Tamim Iqbal, who was ruled out of the Asia Cup 2023 with a back injury. Now, Shakib has become the Bangladesh captain in all three formats of the game. He has been the team’s Test and T20I skipper since early last year.

The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) all-rounder’s last assignment as ODI captain of Bangladesh was against Ireland at Malahide on May 12, 2017, and the match ended without a result. In all, Shakib has led Bangladesh in 52 ODIs, 19 Tests and 39 T20Is, and his tenure at the helm, which started in 2009, has been marked with infrequent stints.

Shakib Al Hasan in World Cups:

2007 - Player
2011 - Captain
2015 - Player
2019 - Player
2023 - Captain* pic.twitter.com/jIZ2KHAvEg — Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 11, 2023

After this announcement, Shakib al Hasan will be leading Bangladesh in his second ODI World Cup after leading the side at home during the 2011 World Cup.

“There was never any confusion. I told you before. He is the obvious choice. Who else can lead? But we had to talk to him before appointing him. Nobody should think anything else. Shakib is the captain. He was always the main choice,” Hasan said on Friday.

Hassan further said that the Asia Cup squad will be the same as the World Cup squad. “They have just one spot open. We still don’t know about Tamim Iqbal who is recovering from a back injury. We might trial one or two openers in the Asia Cup,” he said.

Shakib had led Bangladesh in 49 ODIs between 2009 and 2011, when he first became captain, and won 22 of those. It was an on-again-off-again job for Shakib, who was deputising for the injured pacer and then-skipper Mashrafe Mortaza.