Image Credit- AFP
Bangladesh’s World Cup captain, Shakib Al Hasan, has
flown to Dhaka to train with his coach, Nazmul Abedeen Faheem, while the rest
of the team has arrived in Kolkata ahead of their games against Pakistan on
October 31 and the Netherlands on October 28.
A day after Bangladesh’s 149-run loss to South Africa
in Mumbai, Shakib landed in Dhaka on Wednesday afternoon and proceeded directly
to the Shere Bangla National Stadium to work with Abedeen. Shakib mostly took
throwdowns in the nets throughout the three-hour workout.
“He arrived today. We will be training for three
days,” Faheem told ESPNcricinfo. “Today, tomorrow and day after, and
then he will return to Kolkata. We worked on his batting today.”
At the World Cup, Shakib has had trouble with the bat,
scoring just 56 runs in four innings. He has also claimed six wickets. All this
while Bangladesh has dropped four of its first five games and is last in the
standings.
“Shakib probably feels comfortable working this
way,” Faheem said. “I am not sure what we are going to do next – I
will take each session as he wants.”
As a result, throughout the World Cup, the coaches on
the Bangladeshi team are on the road. The team’s director is Khaled Mahmud,
along with the team’s head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe, technical advisor S.
Sriram, and several players including Nic Pothas, Rangana Herath, Allan Donald,
Shane McDermott, and Faisal Hossain.
It is unusual for a player to leave a World Cup
campaign to practise with a personal coach in a different country—in this case,
home. Captain Temba Bavuma of South Africa had already abandoned the team to
return home during the World Cup warm-up matches, only to re-join it due to
“a personal situation,” in the words of head coach Rob Walter.
Shakib is scheduled to return to Kolkata on October
27, a day before the Netherlands game.