Shakib’s aggressive captaincy may complement fearless cricket: Mahmud

Bangladesh team director Khaled Mahmud Sujon believed the aggressive captaincy of Shakib Al Hasan may be helpful for the team to execute their plan to play the fearless brand of cricket in the T20 format.

According to him, this was one of the reasons which prompted the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to give him the onus despite the controversy, he produced by inking a deal with the Betwinner News, a sister concern of betting company Betwinner.

“Shakib is naturally an aggressive captain so we want to play an aggressive brand of cricket in Asia Cup. I’m not telling that Bangladesh will be champions in the Asia Cup but we want to create a template to do well in this format,” Mahmud said on Monday, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

“T20 is a cricket of 120 balls, so you don’t have the time to think a lot.  You have to strike the ball from the words go. We want that fearless and aggressive cricket amongst everyone. I believe players will be able to execute the plan in Asia Cup. We have first two matches against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and we are clear that we want to win those matches. We know the condition of Sharjah and Dubai well, where those two matches will be held.”

Mahmud also pointed out Shakib’s experience in this format as he is the only player from Bangladesh to play the domestic T20 around the world.

“Board was clear that Shakib should be the best alternative as captain since he is immensely experienced for this format. Mahmudullah is not a bad captain at all but we think we need a captain who is experienced enough for this format and can help the side execute our plan of playing fearless brand of cricket,” he informed.

“Shakib is back in the team and it’s good news for us. But we’ll miss Liton Das because he was in the form of his life. We also will miss Yasir Ali Rabbi. Sohan is in the team but we are not sure whether he will be fit enough to play.”

Mahmud, however, made it clear that Mahmudullah Riyad has still a place to play the T20 cricket despite scoring a lower strike rate for sometimes now but as the same time Mahmud emphasized on batting at higher strike rate to thrive in the shortest format of the cricket.

“Mahmudullah is an experienced campaigner. He almost played 120 matches. But this time we’ve given a plan for everyone. You can’t win a match in T20 cricket with 105-106 strike. Everyone is advised to play 140-150 strike rate and we will practice in this scenario before the Asia Cup.”