Out-of-form Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan has travelled back to Dhaka midway through World Cup 2023 to train with his mentor Nazmul Abedeen Faheem while the rest of the team arrived in Kolkata on October 25. Placed at the bottom of the points table, Bangladesh will go up against the Netherlands followed by Australia on October 28 and 31 respectively.
After the demoralising 149-run loss to South Africa at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, he went to Shere Bangla National Stadium to work on his craft with mentor Faheem, as per ESPNCricinfo. He took throwdowns in the nets and trained for three hours on his batting.
"He arrived today. We will be training for three days," Faheem said. "Today, tomorrow and day after, and then he will return to Kolkata. We worked on his batting today."
Shakib has managed to score just 56 runs from four innings in the tournament. He has not been exceptional with the ball either despite six wickets in his name. Against South Africa, he went for 69 runs from nine overs.
"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."
Shakib chose to train with his mentor despite having Khaled Mahmud as team director, Chandika Hathurusinghe as head coach, technical advisor S Sriram and Nic Pothas, Rangana Herath, Allan Donald, Shane McDermott and Faisal Hossain in the dugout.
This is not the first time Shakib has left a tournament midway to train back at home. In Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 when he was not picked in the playing XI by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), he went back to Dhaka and trained with local coach Mohammad Salahuddin. The sessions worked wonders for him as he scored 606 runs and nine wickets in the World Cup 2019 in England.
The southpaw will be back in India on the eve of the clash against Scott Edwards-led Netherlands.
Earlier, Shakib had admitted that the top four batters have not lived up to the expectations. He also said that they will target finishing fifth or sixth as the hopes of finishing in last four are bleak.
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