Star Bangladesh player Shakib Al Hasan was on the receiving end of a lot of criticism after his dismal outings in the first two games for his team in the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup 2024. Even former Indian opener Virender Sehwag criticised Shakib and suggested him to retire from the T20 format. However, the former BAN captain played a match-winning knock in the match against Netherland being played at the Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent, on June 13 (Thursday).
Bangladesh batting first scored 159/7 with the help of Shakib's unbeaten 64-run knock off 46 balls. This allowed the Asian side to post a fighting total on the board, which later proved out to be too much for the Dutch team as they were restricted to 134/8 and Bangladesh won the match by a margin of 25 runs.
Virender Sehwag's criticism
Sehwag heavily slammed Shakib after their loss against South Africa. He said the cricketer has not been able to show his experience in the tournament so far and suggested him to retire from the shortest format of the game.
"If he was included in the squad for experience, then we were not able to see it. Atleast spend some time at this wicket, it is not like you are not Hayden or Gilchrist who can play a pull shot of a short ball, you are just a player from Bangladesh. Play according to your standards. When you are not able to play hook or pull, so just play the strokes that you know," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
"I felt that Shakib's time in T20 cricket was up a long time back, during the last T20 World Cup. He has been captain for such a long time, he is such a senior player, and after that if your numbers are like these, he should be ashamed of it, right? Even he should realize that he is not cut out for T20s anymore, and announce retirement, he added.
Shakib replies to Sehwag
Shakib replied to a journalist asking about the criticism and said it is not a player's job to answer anyone but when a current player can't perform it is normal to be surrounded by lots of questions.
"A player never comes (enters the field) to answer anyone else. A player’s task is to bat if he is a batter, contribute to the team, bowl well if he is a bowler as getting wickets sometimes also depends on luck, and if he is a fielder then to save runs and take the catches that come his way," Shakib said in the post-match press conference.
"There is nothing to answer to anyone. I think when a current player is not being able to contribute to the team as much as is expected of him then it usually invites a lot of questions, and I don’t think it is a very bad thing,” Shakib added.
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