Politics Not Yet For This Superstar Cricketer

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who will be playing his fourth World Cup, stresses on the cricket culture in his nation that helped the national team dream big.

- Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya

There were whispers of Shakib Al Hasanbuying the ruling party’s nomination form to contest in the parliamentary elections from Magura in Bangladesh last year. But Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina immediately advised the cricketer to take it easy and focus on cricket. That more or less sums up his importance in the national team.

Shakib’s series of firsts — franchise cricket commitments across the cricketing globewhilemaintaining theNo. 1 rank as an all-rounder in all formats— turned him into a superstar in these years.

Sportstar met the Bangladesh vice-captain at a five-star hotel in Chennai during his IPL gig with Sunrisers Hyderabad. “I am talkative and I like telling stories and listening to them. Not many people know about that as I don’t look that type,” he chuckled, before gearing up to answer the question of the hour — the importance of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to the people of Bangladesh. The left-hand batsman and slow left-arm orthodox bowler will be appearing in his fourth World Cup.

The game against Chennai Super Kings (on April 23) came after a long break. How did it feel? You had finger injury issues in the past, there were setbacks and you couldn’t even go to New Zealand...

It has been a long time. If you look at the last four to five months, I didn’t really play anywhere since January. It’s just two games in the IPL. You tend to be a bit rusty. It is hard to regain rhythm. When I bowled the first two overs, the plans did not work out the way I wanted them to. As the match progressed, it started getting better. You need these two or three-odd games to get back to rhythm. I think it will get better from here. The result did not go our way [the loss to CSK at Chepauk], which was disappointing.