RAWALPINDI
\nBangladesh\u2019s captain on Tuesday was confident that ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan will compete at his best in a Test against Pakistan this week, after protests over the former lawmaker\u2019s inclusion.
\nShakib, 37, was a member of the now-dissolved Bangladesh parliament led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was forced to flee the country at the start of the month following mass protests.
\nLast week, the interim government permitted Shakib, who has not commented on the political crisis, to feature in the two Tests against Pakistan, the first of which starts Wednesday.
\n\u201cHe has played this game for so, long so he knows his role and how to prepare himself. I am not thinking about his political career,\u201d Bangladesh skipper and captain Najmul Hossain Shanto said at a press conference.
\nAsked if the political setback would affect Shakib\u2019s performance, Shanto said: \u201cI don\u2019t think so because he is a professional cricketer, we all treat him as a cricketer, to be honest.\u201d
\n\u201cI hope he will do something special in this series,\u201d he added.
\nShakib is Bangladesh\u2019s key allrounder with 4,505 runs in 67 Tests and as a spinner got 237 wickets \u2014 the most of any Bangladesh bowler in Test cricket.
\nBangladeshis in Dhaka protested over Shakib\u2019s continued inclusion in the team, with former Bangladesh Cricket Board member Rafiqul Islam criticising him for staying silent as protesters died in clashes with security forces.
\nShakib joined the squad in Pakistan last week, after featuring in the Global T20 League in Canada, where Bangladeshis also chanted slogans against him.
\nThe unrest in Dhaka stopped the team from assembling for practice sessions.
\nThe tourists got some reprieve after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) invited them to arrive four days early to make up for their lack of preparations.
\nStill, Shanto hoped that Bangladesh could overturn a dismal Test record against Pakistan, having lost 12 of the last 13 Tests, with just one draw.
\n\u201cWe have a balanced side and I hope we play some good cricket,\u201d said Shanto. \u201cI think the record can be changed, it\u2019s not easy but we believe that we can do some special things.\u201d The Rawalpindi Test is under threat from bad weather, with rain predicted on all five days. The second Test will be played in the same stadium from August 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RAWALPINDI Bangladesh\u2019s captain on Tuesday was confident that ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan will compete at his best in a Test against Pakistan this week, after protests over the former lawmaker\u2019s inclusion. Shakib, 37, was a member of the now-dissolved Bangladesh parliament led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was forced to flee the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":69130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69136,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69104\/revisions\/69136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}