Following Bangladesh’ defeat against South Africa at the T20 World Cup 2024, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag has lambasted Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan for his poor performance. The Proteas beat Bangladesh by a narrow margin of four runs in a low-scoring match, where the veteran batter managed to score only three runs, before getting out to pacer Anrich Nortje.
While talking to CricBuzz, Sehwag opined that being a senior player, Shakib should’ve played a bigger role in the run chase. But, before even getting settled, the left-handed batter was taken out by Nortje’s quick bouncer, thereby restricting Shakib’s innings to three runs off four balls only.
“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,” said Sehwag.
Since last year, Shakib has had a shaky few months which saw him leave the 2023 ODI World Cup midway due to injury, thereby giving up his captaincy of the team. He then went through an eye issue which further kept him away from playing Cricket, before making his international comeback against Zimbabwe. But even after all of that, he seemed more like a shadow of his former self.
Sehwag even went on to the extent of saying that Shakib should be ashamed of his recent performance, pointing at the veteran allrounder’s form at the shortest format since the 2021 T20 World Cup. Shakib also had quite an underwhelming performance during Bangladesh’ opening match at the current tournament against Sri Lanka, where he scored just 8 runs off 14 deliveries.
“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,” added Sehwag.
Bangladesh are sitting at the second position in Group D, after registering one win in two matches that they have played till now. Their next match is against Netherlands at St. Vincent on June 13, who are placed right below the Bengal tigers with the same number of points, only behind on net run rate.
