What Sujan said about criticizing Shakib

Bangladesh’s performance on the field in the current World Cup is miserable. First of all, they confirmed their departure from the World Cup. For which many are blaming the captain Shakib Al Hasan. On the contrary, team director Khaled Mahmud Sujan said Shakib could not give even 100% of his potential. According to him, for the needs of the team, Shakib even rushed to the country to train to perform well.

The Bangladesh team is currently staying in Delhi ahead of the next match. There today (Friday) Sujan talks about the overall condition of Team Tigers. Sujan said, ‘Shakib is not even ten percent of his hundred (could not play), Shakib also understands this well. That is why he went to Dhaka for training. He knows how eager he is to perform. Not just his performance, he wants the team to win. The biggest problem is the team not performing and not winning. The way he led from the front as captain in the 2019 World Cup, not being able to do that could also be a reason.

However, Sujan is unwilling to blame Shakib for the loss, ‘It is not useful to blame Shakib alone. Shakib does not play alone in the team, there are 10 other players. The responsibility of the captain is slightly different, but as a player, everyone’s responsibility is the same. When Shakib bats, Shakib is not a captain, he is a batsman. He is a bowler when he bowls. At the end of the day, all the batter-bowlers have to take the same responsibility.’

Team director Sujan thinks everyone should be criticized, ‘As a captain you have to take that criticism, it is very natural. I think all the criticism (should be) not of Shakib, but of all of us. When it comes to Bangladesh, we are all one team. I am also a part of it. That is my failure too. I think the failure is all of us, we didn’t do well.’

Bangladesh has nothing new to gain or lose in the World Cup. However, Shakib’s team can play in the 2025 Champions Trophy if they win the remaining two matches. That’s why they want to do well at least in those matches. Bangladesh has lost 6 out of 7 World Cup matches so far. They will face Sri Lanka on November 6 and Australia on November 11 in their next two matches.

SH/AHS