Shakib Al Hasan yet again brought up some respect for the struggling Bangladesh cricket team as he became the number-one ranked all-rounder in the Reliance ICC Test Player Rankings, an ICC press release said on Thursday. His outstanding achievement came at the moment when critics raised their vocal high following Bangladesh’s calamitous performance in longer version cricket.
The 24-year old indeed is occupying the number one all-rounder slot in ODI as well, meant he is the most valuable all-rounder at the moment as per ICC rankings.
He is the first Bangladeshi player to reach in the peak of ranking in both ODI and Test all-rounder slot.
Shakib made him different from the others despite Bangladesh’s continuous slump as he scored 451 runs at a staggering average of 50.11 and claimed 21 wickets in just five Tests in 2011.
But his latest accolades came after the stellar performance against Pakistan. He became the first Bangladeshi player to score a century and take five-for in the same Test when he scored 144 and took 6-82.
In fact he set the benchmark for the Bangladeshi cricketers as his name was engaged in almost all maiden individual achievement in international circuit.
“Someone would have to start the process. I am lucky in this aspect because the process started by me,” said Shakib.
“It is indeed a big achievement. As a first Bangladeshi player, I reached the peak. That’s really great accolades. I’ll try to keep up that,” the Magura lad added.
Shakib believed his achievement would inspire the future Bangladesh cricketers to be high standard international cricketer.
“Though it’s a personal achievement, I think it’ll bring up good for the greater interest of country’s cricket. Our personal record reflects the improvement of our cricket in fact.”
“The more performers we’ll get in the national team, the more achievement the country will attain. The players who have been trying to be future star will be inspired by watching that bunch of performers.”
Shakib however said excitement is yet to grip him despite the biggest achievement of his career so far.
“Still I can’t feel the importance of those achievements as I am in cricket now. Probably these achievements will give me a huge satisfaction once I’ll bid the cricket good-bye.”
Shakib has also improved his batting and bowling rankings.
In the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen, Shakib has vaulted seven places to claim a career-best 31st position while in the bowling chart he has claimed seventh position after gaining two places.
The other Bangladesh batsmen to improve their rankings include captain Mushfiqur Rahim (up by one to 44th), Shahriar Nafees (up by eight to 61st) and Nasir Hossain (up by 32 to 96th).
-With The Independent input
