Bangladesh opener Imrul Kayes was disappointed over Shakib Al Hasan's poor form in the ongoing ODI World Cup. Imrul said that he has rarely seen Shakib to struggle so much with the bat.
Imrul was worried about Shakib's run drought however, he made a comeback with a pleasing 43 runs from 64 balls innings but he remained wicket-less in their seven-wicket loss to Pakistan.
Despite being on the wicket for a long time, Shakib was seen to struggle to play the Pakistani bowlers and was forced to give away his wicket to Haris Rauf.
"With Shakib coming out today, it was difficult for Shakib to play in his style." In international cricket, Shakib always bats at a strike rate of 90 or higher. Shakib is always on the run, and wants to rotate the strike, that was not possible in today's situation. He was looking to settle down. I have rarely seen Shakib struggle so much in all my years of playing cricket with him," Imrul stated during a live session with Cricfrenzy.
"He wanted to put up a good score today and lead the team to a good position. That explains why he took his time. That's what Riyad bhai always does, and Shakib was trying to imitate it. Shakib seemed to be poised to play score big after he settled down. But, once again, he couldn't execute it effectively with the bat. That is why he failed," he added.
Shakib missed the match against India due to an injury in the World Cup. Apart from the match against Pakistan, he scored 14, 1, 40, 1 and 5 runs respectively in the other matches.