Bangladesh Cricket Board Names Najmul Hossain Shanto As Men’s Captain In All Formats

Dhaka: Bangladesh have handed the captaincy reigns to Najmul Hossain Shanto in all three formats for a year, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan announced on Monday. The news comes in on expected lines after Shakib Al Hasan was infected with an eye condition last month.With Tamil Iqbal stepping down as Bangladesh captain last year, Shakib was entrusted with the responsibility.

Under his leadership, Bangladesh didn’t fare well in the ODI World Cup 2023 in India. With Shakib getting busy with his Bangladesh national election campaigns, Shanto led the side impressively against New Zealand in Tests and ODIs. Bangladesh drew the two-match Test series 1-1 against New Zealand at home. In their white-ball tour to New Zealand, Bangladesh lost the ODI series 1-2 and drew T20I series 1-1.

“We discussed about captaincy at length…after the lengthy discussion we reached in consensus to appoint Najmul Hossain Shanto as the captain of Bangladesh in all three formats for this year,” BCB president Nazmul said after a board meeting.

Earlier, Shakib told that he would give up ODI captaincy after the World Cup and hinted at discontinuing in the longest format but expressed interest in leading the side in T20 World Cup 2024. Under Shakib’s leadership, Bangladesh enjoyed an impressive run in T20Is in 2023.

Besides Shanto, the BCB also announced Gazi Ashraf Hossain as the new chief selector and Hannan Sarkar as a new member of the selection committee. The announcement means Minhajul Abedin’s time as chief selector ends after eight long years. Former captain Habibul Bashar also exits the committee as a selector.

Shanto’s first assignment as full-time captain will come against Sri Lanka, which will visit Bangladesh in March for two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is. Shanto previously led Bangladesh in Shakib’s absence for 11 matches over the three formats, including two matches in 2023 World Cup.

Shanto scored 1,650 runs, averaging 42.30, across all formats last year. He also hit five centuries, the most by a Bangladeshi batter in a calendar year.