BSS
The Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is set to opt out the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka in April in a bid to make him available for the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Cricket Operations Chairman Akram Khan confirmed the news, saying that the board has granted his leave after he chose IPL over Test cricket.
He said Shakib though will skip the Test series, the premier all-rounder will play the three-match ODI series that precedes the Test.
“He has recently given us a letter, asking to skip the Sri Lanka Test series as he wants to play the IPL,” Akram Khan told the reporters here on Friday.
“The board had already given him the permission because there is no point of forcing someone who is not interested to play.”
Shakib was signed by Kolkata Knight Riders at a whopping price of INR 3.2 crore at the auction held yesterday in Chennai. He is back in IPL after missing the previous year due to his ICC-imposed ban for his failure to report the corrupt approaches from the bookies.
He has previously played for the Knight Riders between 2011 and 2017, and was an integral member of their championship winning sides of 2012 and 2014.
“We want him to play well in IPL. He wants to return to national team ahead of the ODI series,” Akram said.
Meanwhile Shakib’s wife Umme Ahmed Shishir posted a twitter screenshot of renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle who tweeted that Shakib wanted leave from Test cricket to concentrate on IPL in a bid to prepare him for the ICC World Cup and T20 World Cup as the cricket world will see three World Cups in
coming years.
“More people choosing to play the IPL over tests for their country. @Sah75official (Shakib Al Hasan) will play for @KKRiders (Kolkata Knight Riders) instead of tests against Sri Lanka. With two T20 World Cups and a 50 over World Cup in the next two years, the priorities are becoming easier to articulate,” Bhogle twitted.
However, this will be the second international assignment that the 33-year- old Shakib will miss having been granted paternity leave to skip the white- ball tour of New Zealand later in February-March.
BCB is looking to play the postponed tour of Sri Lanka in April after the series was postponed twice due to Covid-19 pandemic.
This is not the first time Shakib is skipping a Test series. He had decided to take a six-month break from the format in September 2017 in order to manage his workload. He is also not the only cricketer to pick IPL over national duties with England likely to not recall its players playing in IPL Playoffs for the home series against New Zealand.
