Image Source- BCB
In his retirement plan, Shakib Al Hasan stated that
the 2025 Champions Trophy might be his last competition as a professional
cricket player. After the 2024 T20 World Cup, he claimed he will stop playing
T20 Internationals, and he may also stop playing Test cricket after the next
ODI World Cup in India.
“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.”
Shakib revealed he almost resigned as captain after
returning from the Asia Cup earlier this month but decided to continue after
speaking with the team management. This was in an interview with T-Sports where
he also criticised Tamim Iqbal for being left off of Bangladesh’s World Cup
roster.
After Tamim resigned from his position as captain in
early August, he claimed that he had initially declined the position but later
accepted it out of consideration for the squad.
“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 don’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
don’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.”