Unique Shakib leads Tigers’ batting, bowling chart in World Cup

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DHAKA, May 4, 2019 (BSS) — Shakib Al Hasan might find him in the land of controversy for not joining official team photo session for the ICC Cricket World Cup, but the ace all-rounder remains the pillar of the team’s batting and bowling in the cricket’s biggest carnival.

His 540 runs and 23 wickets in 21 World Cup matches remain highest for Bangladesh so far in both batting and bowling chart, making him to do this as the only player in the world. No other players in the history of cricket topped the batting and bowling graph in Cricket World Cup concurrently for his country as of now.

In his first appearance in the World Cup in 2007 against India, he made his presence felt with a classical 86 ball-53, hitting five fours and one six that helped Bangladesh stun India by five wickets and subsequently led the sub-continent superpower’s early exit from the showcase event.

While Tamim Iqbal gave the side a solid start with whirlwind 51 runs with a straight six off Zaheer Khan that went down as the most audacious shot in the cricket folklore, Shakib’s serene batting halfway through the innings made sure that the start from Tamim wouldn’t be wasted.

He didn’t any wicket to show in his first match but he remained economical with his wily left-arm spin, which helped Mashrafe Bin Mortaza did the most the damage to India’s much-vaunted batting line-up that included the legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly.

Shakib then never looked back and stamped his authority in every World Cup he played. He so far played three World Cups and contributed consistently regardless of the team’s victory or loss.

As now he struck five half-centuries in batting with the highest of 63 and in bowling his best bowling figure remains 4-55. He though hasn’t any century to enrich his World Cup CV, Shakib ensured he would get runs consistently as a middle order batsman to help Bangladesh’s cause.

While Shakib topped the batting list for Bangladesh with 540 runs, averaging 30, Mushfiqur Rahim occupied the second spot with 510 runs with an average of 31.87, hitting four half-centuries. Tamim Iqbal who topped Bangladesh batting chart in both ODI and Test cricket is in the third place as far as his batting in World Cup is concerned. Tamim scored 483 runs with three half-centuries and averaging just 23. Mahmudullah Riyad though is in fourth place, his World Cup number is staggering.

He struck 397 runs, playing just 10 matches in two World Cups. He has whopping average of 56.71 but most significantly he remains the only Bangladesh batsman to hit World Cup century. And not just one, he made two successive centuries in 2015 World Cup against New Zealand and England. And the 103 against England came in a winning-cause that helped Bangladesh move into the quarterfinal stage for the first time.

However Shakib has 23 wickets in 21 matches under his belt while his fellow left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak came as second with 20 wickets from 15 matches. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the ODI captain is in third place with 18 wickets in 16 matches and has the chance to go second toppling Razzak. Fast bowler Rubel Hossain is in the fourth place with 13 wickets from 12 matches while Khaled Mahmud Sujon, the current team manager of the side, is in fifth with 12 wickets from nine matches.

But unfortunately no bowlers from Bangladesh is yet to take a five-wicket haul in any World Cup match with the bets bowling figure remaining 4-21 by fast bowler Shafiul Islam, who is not in the current World Cup team. Now it is to see whether any bowler can break the jinx!

Most Runs

Player Match Runs Highest Average 100 50

Shakib Al Hasan 21 540 63 30.00 0 5

Mushfiqur Rahim 21 510 89 31.87 0 4

Tamim Iqbal 21 483 95 23.00 0 3

Mahmudullah 10 397 128* 56.71 2 1

Mohammad Ashraful 16 299 87 24.91 0 2

Imrul Kayes 9 197 73* 24.62 0 2

Sabbir Rahman 6 182 53 36.50 0 1

Soumya Sarkar 6 175 51 29.16 0 1

Mashrafe Mortaza 16 165 37 15.00 0 0

Minhajul Abedin 4 140 68* 70.00 0 2

Most Wickets

Player Match Wickets BBI Ave 4 5

Shakib Al Hasan 21 23 4/55 35.78 1 0

Abdur Razzak 15 20 3/20 28.20 0 0

Mashrafe Mortaza 16 18 4/38 36.05 1 0

Rubel Hossain 12 13 4/53 39.53 1 0

Khaled Mahmud 9 12 3/31 24.83 0 0

Mohammad Rafique 17 12 3/35 42.25 0 0

Taskin Ahmed 6 9 3/43 36.11 0 0

Syed Rasel 7 8 2/25 29.87 0 0

Manjural Islam 10 8 3/62 37.62 0 0

Shafiul Islam 6 6 4/21 33.83 1 0