|| CF Correspondent ||

Shakib Al Hasan might be the vice-captain and should be an automatic choice to succeed Mashrafe Bin Mortaza when he would retire from the ODI cricket.

But already the captain of Test and T20 format, Shakib Al Hasan might not get any easy leeway to lead the team ODI too, if Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) sticks on their plan to introduce a split captaincy once again.

Retirement of Mashrafe, who is playing just ODI format, from the cricket seemed to be a matter of time. As team-wise and person-wise, Mashrafe had a forgettable World Cup after which his retirement issue gained more force.

But the handover of the captaincy doesn’t look to be straightway even though Shakib, as a captain is more potent, experienced and established than Tamim Iqbal.

Shakib is always ahead of Tamim in terms of getting the best out of his teammates or implementing strategy in the field. So, why BCB is thinking about giving the captaincy over Tamim? It’s not an unusual question to have. Here the thinking of a top brash of BCB is playing a major role.    

Sources said, BCB doesn’t want the same captain in three formats, that’s the main thing. For that, they are thinking about Tamim as the ODI captain. Shakib is currently leading Bangladesh in the Test and T20 formats. They don’t want to pressurize Shakib by giving him captaincy across three formats. 

There can’t be same captain in all three formats—a longstanding thought of BCB. Few years back Mushfiqur Rahim was given the captaincy across formats and the result still haunts BCB. That’s why they want to keep Shakib as captain in two formats and give the ODI captaincy to another player. And in this race Tamim is ahead of everyone else. 

How Tamim will do as the ODI captain of Bangladesh? To find the answer, Tamim is given the captaincy in three match ODI series in Sri Lanka. In these three-match series board wants to observe how Tamim does as captain rather than a batsman. If he does well then there is chance to see Tamim as the ODI skipper of Bangladesh. But of course it will be after the retirement of Mashrafe. 

Before going to the Sri Lanka series current ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza talked with the press. If he didn’t sustain hamstring injury in practice, he might have led Bangladesh in the Sri Lanka series. So, after that BCB had to take quick decision about the captaincy as they had to fly Sri Lanka the very next day. And at the same time, Shakib Al Hasan was absent in the series after being granted for a time off from cricket for personal affairs.

However Tamim Iqbal seemed the best candidate to the authority. 

Rumors were rife, they were thinking about giving the captaincy to Mushfiqur Rahim but he didn’t agree. Apart from that, Mehidy Hasan Miraz was also possible candidate. But the importance of the series and lack of experience of Mehidy was considered as barrier in selecting him as captain. BCB may have thought about Mahmudullah who led Bangladesh in the absence of Shakib but the surprising fact is that his name never came into consideration.