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DHAKA, June 2, 2022 (BSS) - Ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan was named as the 
Test captain of Bangladesh as it was expected. 

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon made the 
announcement today, while confirming Liton Das as vice-captain for the longer 
version format.

The announcement came two days after Mominul Haque decided to quit the Test 
captaincy following a lean batting streak that extended to seven straight 
single digit figures. 

He could just reach double digit mark thrice in the last 15 innings, which 
gave the critics an opportunity to raise their voice high against him.

"A total of three players were in contention to be the captain of Test side," 
Papon said after the board's executive committee's meeting held today at 
BCB's headquarters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

"At first, we decided to announce a vice-captain alongside Test captain. So 
after an elaborate discussion, we have decided to appoint Shakib as the 
captain for this format. Liton Das will act as his deputy."

Shakib will start leading the side for the third time from the upcoming West 
Indies series. Coincidentally in the last two times, he also began his 
captaincy career against West Indies.

Shakib firstly was appointed as the captain during Bangladesh's tour in West 
Indies in 2009 after Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was injured on the first day of the 
first Test. That remains Mashrafe's last Test.

Under Shakib's captaincy, Bangladesh won that series to make a history as 
that was the Tigers' first series victory on foreign soil.

Following a disastrous Zimbabwe tour in 2011, Shakib was stripped off the 
captaincy but back to being the captain again in 2018 when Mushfiqur Rahim 
stepped down.

At this phase, Shakib led the side till 2019 before being banned by ICC for 
two years for his failure to report the corrupt approaches from the bookies.

In those two terms, Shakib led the side in 14 matches and won just three 
while lost 11.

The board however was in dilemma to give him the captaincy since he was not 
quite regular in Test format of late. But Shakib ensured that from now on, he 
will play the longer version format as regular basis.

According to most of the board members, Shakib is the best option to lead the 
side in Test cricket if he plays this format regularly.

Mominul led the side in 17 matches and won three including a memorable Test 
win against New Zealand on Black Caps den earlier this year. Under his 
captaincy, Bangladesh lost 12 matches and drew two. But of late he was unable 
to motivate the side because of his serious bad patch.

Mominul was given Test captaincy in 2019 after Shakib Al Hasan was banned 
from the cricket.

But his batting form took a nosedive once he took over the captaincy. Before 
being captain, he had scored 2613 runs with an average of 41.48 in 36 Tests 
but after getting the captaincy, his average went down to 31.44 in 17 Tests. 
In this period he made just 912 runs that included three centuries and two 
half-centuries. Mominul now has 3525 runs under his belt in 53 matches with 
11 centuries, which meant after being captain he hit just three centuries.

Mominul said it is tough to lead the side when the captain himself suffers 
from run-drought.

"When you will play well, you can motivate the team even if the team goes 
through a bad time. But the thing is that I am not doing well and at the same 
time, team is doing bad. So it is really tough to lead the side in this 
situation," Mominul said as the reason of quitting the captaincy.