"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," is a line penned by Scottish poet Robert Burns around 250 years ago. It was the poet's personal take on how even the most meticulously planned scenarios get overturned by the cruel hand of fate.
It's unclear whether Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is familiar with this quote, but after his omission from Bangladesh's squad for the ICC Champions Trophy, where he had planned to call time on his career, he is definitely experiencing the truth of the sentiment behind this line.
The Champions Trophy, starting on February 19 in Karachi, was meant to be the 37-year-old's ODI swansong as said by the all-rounder himself in an interview before the 2023 World Cup. But unforeseen events have now removed him from that event where he almost single-handedly ensured Bangladesh's qualification.
Had Shakib not timed out Angelo Mathews in Bangladesh's 2023 World Cup encounter against Sri Lanka in Delhi and also put forth a match-winning all-round display, featuring figures of 2-57 with the ball and a 65-ball 82 with the bat, Bangladesh, who climbed to eighth and edged Sri Lanka and the Netherlands on a better run-rate after the win, would not have qualified for the prestigious event.
Shakib has not played an ODI since that World Cup match and the last time he represented Bangladesh was in September 2024 in a two-match Test series against India. He had announced his T20I retirement last year. His involvement with the ousted Awami League government has kept him from returning to Bangladesh. The bowling ban imposed on him by the ICC made it easier for the national selectors to drop him, as they found it difficult to rope him into the side solely as a batter.
Shakib, whose bowling action was reported as suspicious in September 2023 in a County Cricket match in England, failed his bowling test for a second time last Thursday.
"He can play as a batter as he has failed the bowling test [relating to his action]. We have considered him as a batter while making up the squad but due to the constraints brought forth due to the team combinations, we could not include him," chief selector Gazi Ashraf Lipu confirmed in Mirpur yesterday.
But the question is why would the selectors even consider him as a sole batter? Shakib's uncertainty regarding him being able to play matches at home coupled with the fact that he has not played any of the 12 ODIs the Tigers have played since the 2023 World Cup should have been enough to look towards the future.
The BCB also confirmed yesterday that Shakib can retake the bowling test as many times as he wants. Does that mean if Shakib passes the next test, he will be back in consideration as an all-rounder?
Since the start of 2023, Shakib played 23 ODI and scored 735 runs at an average of 35 while striking it at 89. In that period, the left-handed batter scored 242 runs at an average of 26.88 in six Tests, and in the 20 T20Is he played, he scored 308 runs at a strike-rate of 117.11.
The BCB has the opportunity to make changes to the squad till next month. It rarely makes it easy to rule out abnormality. So, is there another twist around the corner or have we seen the last of Shakib in national colours?
