Sports Desk:

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan joined his teammates of the national squad at Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday to take preparation for the upcoming two-match Test series, scheduled from 21 August.

Amid civil unrest, Bangladesh travelled earlier to Pakistan to prepare for the series as their training was hampered due to political instability in the country.

Shakib, who was playing in the Global T20 League when his teammates were busy playing red-ball cricket in Bangladesh Tigers program, joined the team last night and completed the net sessions with his teammates at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Bangladesh chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain recently insisted that Shakib is available for all eight Test matches in 2024 including playing two-match Test series respectively against Pakistan, India, South Africa and West Indies.

Shakib’s selection was a matter of discussion considering whether he will be available in the training session ahead of any Test series when his teammates will train at home in the coming days is being scrutinized as there are security issues as well for Shakib as he is actively involved in politics being a member of the parliament from Awami League banner in the last general election, a party ousted by the people in the recent movement that too being violent against their lawmakers.

“He had NOC till 12 (August) for Global T20 League and we all were informed well in advance that he will join the Test team in Pakistan straight from Canada and that is exactly what he did this time,” BCB cricket operation in-charge Shahriar Nafees told that on Wednesday.

“You are well aware that he is expected to be available for all the Test matches that we are scheduled to play this year and as I understand he will be available in the training camps in the coming days considering he will have to have fitness test and all those things. As for now considering he is playing competitive cricket we are expecting him to be fit and ready to play the Test series,” he said.

Shakib’s selection was a matter of discussion considering he played only four of the eight Tests that Bangladesh played in the last two years while in the recent past, he seemed to be struggling with his batting due to his eye problem.

Shakib, who played his last Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram in March after an 11-month gap, scored 15 and 36 runs respectively and seemed troubled by the Lankan bowlers.

Shakib, who scored his last Test century in 2017, scored two fifties in last two years in the four Test matches where he batted in seven innings, making 254 runs at an average of 36.28. Shakib only picked 12 wickets in the last four Test matches that he played in last two years.

Bangladesh batting coach David Hemp, who is currently guiding the Bangladesh A team in Pakistan, told Daily Sun on Wednesday that he is pretty confident Shakib have the experience to shift from one format to other while added that all he needs to do is concentrate considering if he manages to stay a bit more in the wicket he can score lot of runs as wickets in Rawalpindi is known to be batting friendly.

“He (Shakib) is an experienced player so he will have the knowledge and capacity to make the transition from red ball to white ball,” said Hemp.

“Red ball cricket tests your decision making over longer periods of time so maintaining discipline and patience are important factors( for him),” he said.

“He (Shakib) just needs to make sure he spends some more time in the middle because the range of shots he possesses he can score big as the wicket is batting friendly in Rawalpindi,” he added.

“He has the scoring options to impact the game but scoring big hundreds takes time,” he concluded.

Bangladesh will reach Islamabad on 17 August to start their preparation for the first Test, scheduled in Islamabad, while later they will move to Karachi to play the series concluding Test, scheduled in Lahore from 30 August.