Najmul Hossain Shanto Takes Over as Bangladesh's All-Format Captain for One-Year Period

Bangladesh opener Najmul Hussain Shanto has been made the captain of the team in all three formats. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement on Monday after a meeting held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.

Bangladesh was led by Shakib Al Hasan in the ODI World Cup 2023 after Tamim Iqbal stepped down as the captain of the team. Bangladesh Cricket Board has appointed Ghazi Ashraf Hussain as the chief selector while Hannan Sarkar has also been appointed as the selector. Najmul Hussain Shanto also led Bangladesh during the ODI and T20I series against New Zealand in December 2023. At one end, Bangladesh was able to perform well in the tour and won 1 out of three ODI matches. T20I series leveled 1-1.

Najmul Hussain Shanto has been appointed Bangladesh captain for 1 year

"We had a long discussion about the captaincy... The board has decided to appoint Nazmul Hussain Shanto as the captain for all three formats for this year," Bangladesh Cricket Board chairman Najmul Hasan Papon told reporters after the meeting. Bangladesh has gone through a lot of instability in their team in the last 1 year.

During the ODI series against Afghanistan, Tamim Iqbal, who was leading the team in the ODI format, announced his shock retirement from international cricket. However, he soon retracted his decision after discussions with former captain Mashrafe Mortaza, BCB president and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Tamim Iqbal was rested from international cricket and Liton Das captained the team for the remainder of the Afghanistan series. However, Shakib Al Hasan was later handed over the captaincy for the upcoming tournaments like Asia Cup and ODI World Cup.

Bangladesh performed poorly in both tournaments and were eliminated after showing flop performances in both competitions.

However, there was also a rift between Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, who withdrew their names from the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup 2023 squads as they did not want to bat in that order. Shakib did not like Tamim's behavior and called him a 'child'.

Shakib Al Hasan also did not perform well during both the tournaments and was diagnosed with retinal disease in his left eye. The eye problem started during the 2023 ODI World Cup.

In seven ODI World Cup 2023 matches, Shakib Al Hasan managed just 186 runs at an average of 26.57. With just two wins from nine games, Bangladesh finished the tournament in eighth place. Shakib returned to action during Bangladesh Premier League 2023 and played for Rangpur Raiders.