Shakib switched on

Prior to his departure for Australia on Friday night, premier Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan said that his injured finger would never be the same again.

“This finger [his left little finger] will not be 100 per cent okay again. Since the bone is soft here, there is no possibility to fix it like it was before. By operating they [the doctors] will bring it to a position so that I can grip the bat well and continue my career as a cricketer,” Shakib told reporters with a somber voice at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

His latest statement is quite moving, especially after the way his injury was handled by the team management during last month's Asia Cup in the UAE.

Bangladesh team manager Khaled Mahmud told reporters the night before the Tigers' virtual semifinal against Pakistan that Shakib's chance of playing the game on September 26 was 50-50. However, the following day the 31-year-old all-rounder took a flight back home with a painful and swollen little finger. Upon his return to Dhaka, he was scheduled to fly to the United States within the next couple of days to have an operation on his injured finger. But after he experienced severe pain, he was admitted to a city hospital, where the doctors removed 50 to 60 mg of pus. He stayed at the hospital for four days to make sure the infection subsided.

The amount of pus removed from his finger and the severity of the infection raised the question that he might not have been properly treated by the Bangladesh cricket team's physio Thihan Chandramohan when the key Bangladesh player was with the team in Dubai from mid-September. Although the physio never spoke regarding the issue and avoided inquisitive reporters when he went to see Shakib at the hospital on September 30, the notion that the injury aggravated dramatically and that Shakib was under constant monitoring in Dubai is quite incredulous.

In the Asia Cup, where Bangladesh eventually finished runners-up after losing that nail-biting final against India, opener Tamim Iqbal was put on hero's a perch for batting with one hand in the tournament opener against Sri Lanka. Tamim certainly defied warnings from the physio when he came out to bat with a fractured left wrist. But at any point did the physio -- the technical support person who is paid heavily by the Bangladesh Cricket Board -- warn that if Shakib kept on playing with his injured finger it would be a career-damaging endeavour? If that was not the case then it was a clear case of negligence, primarily on the part of the physio and the team management in general.

“There is no question of negligence. Our effort is to provide the best possible treatment to Shakib. He is our key player and we want him to recover fully and return to national duty soon,” BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said yesterday.

“Our priority is Shakib's safety. We are also working on it to find out if there was anything wrong in the assessment (by the physio),” added the chief executive.

Shakib sustained the injury during the tri-nation ODI final against Sri Lanka in January this year and was subsequently sidelined for two Tests and as many T20Is against the Lankans. Although he returned to action in March during the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka, he was advised to have an operation at a suitable time. Prior to the Asia Cup, Shakib said he was only 20 to 30 per cent fit. But nobody -- the coach, the captain and the board president -- entertained the suggestion. Shakib, in pain, played the Asia Cup and unfortunately was not his usual self either with the ball or the bat. He tried to make up for that physical deficiency with mental toughness. But it was only after he collapsed that everyone took his claim seriously.

“No one is indispensible. Bangladesh played well without a couple of key players in the Asia Cup. There is always scope for a new player to step in,” Shakib said on Friday night, adding that if everything goes well he would be able to return to action for the Bangladesh Premier League in January next year.

True, no one is indispensible. But Shakibs are rare in world cricket and extremely precious for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and is on his way back to Dhaka with a flare-up of his long-standing left little finger injury, team manager Khaled Mahmud informed today. According to Mahmud, Shakib boarded the 4:00pm flight to Dhaka, and will go to either Melbourne or New York for surgery. 

Shakib had earlier been ruled out of the Asia Cup Super Four match against Pakistan with a flare-up of his long-standing finger injury which he sustained during the tri-series final against Sri Lanka in January this year. 

"He will be out for four to six weeks," Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) cricket operations chairman Akram Khan told reporters during the match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi today. "The pain had increased over the last few days and the physio [Thihan Chandramohan] tried his best to get him on the field, but the pain was too much.

"I would like to thank Shakib for playing [the first four matches] with the pain he had."

Akram informed that the surgery will keep him out of action for four to six weeks.  

Earlier, team manager Mahmud said that Shakib was finding it difficult to even grip the bat. 

He had gone for a scan on Monday, the day following the Bangladesh-s three-run win over Afghanistan, which the team management said was routine. However, while not revealing the contents of the scan, team manager Khaled Mahmud had said that Shakib was a 50-50 chance of playing the Pakistan game. 

His participation in the ongoing Asia Cup was in doubt until it was decided that he would possibly go for a surgery before the home series against Zimbabwe next month. He had said in the lead-up to the tournament that while there was not much problem bowling his left-arm spin, he was finding it difficult to bat.  

In his very first assignment after being reappointed as Bangladesh's Test captain, Shakib Al Hasan faced the humiliation of being bundled out for the country's lowest Test score of 43 runs in Antigua, which was the first act in a 2-0 thrashing in the Test series against West Indies in July this year.

He missed Bangladesh's next Test series -- the home assignment against Zimbabwe last month -- but the scar left by that Caribbean humiliation kept haunting the champion cricketer as he returned for another series against West Indies. This time, however, it was at home and he had different intentions.

It was the West Indies pace attack in their conditions that rattled the Tigers. Shakib came up with a similar plan to use their own conditions and included four spinners in the lineup.

And it was the spinners who took all 40 wickets in the two-match series as the Tigers surpassed their own record of the spinners taking 38 wickets against England in 2016 at home.

Bangladesh went on to clinch the series 2-0 with a scintillating innings-and-184-run win over the West Indies. It was also Bangladesh's first ever innings win in Test cricket over their 18-year journey in the longest format.

"It was not about answering them back, but there is always some advantage on home soil. They took the advantage in their conditions; we did the same. Obviously after losing in that manner there was a lot to prove for us, at least on our own soil. We were able to do so and I would like to thank all the members of the side who had the belief before the series," Shakib, who was adjudged player of the series for his captaincy, told reporters in Mirpur yesterday.

"To be honest, I was very demanding in this series as I was expecting more from everyone. Everyone tried from their end and some were successful and some were not, but the belief was there in everyone. All the members want to contribute for the side every time, but this time the urge to contribute was seen to be more."

The cricketers may not openly admit that revenge was a factor but there were some really motivating words from Shakib ahead of the series as he urged his charges not to forget the defeat in the West Indies.

"I believe none of those who were in the West Indies expected such a performance. We had a meeting after losing in such a manner and we managed to come back hard in the ODI and T20I series. As we were unable to do well in Tests, there were a lot to prove for us.

"We have been playing Tests for 18 years and have played more than 100 Tests. We played against smaller teams in that period. So, to achieve our first ever innings victory here and whitewashing a team at home for the first time... I think it was a big gain for us."

Despite Bangladesh drawing their recent two-Test home series against Zimbabwe 1-1, many will have given the visitors the edge as they stayed competitive throughout the series while Bangladesh's batting failed abjectly in the first Test, and it remains the Tigers' biggest concern.

The home batsmen eventually managed to snap the streak of eight consecutive sub-200 scores in the second Test in Mirpur, where Mushfiqur Rahim struck a magnificent double hundred and Mominul Haque registered his sixth Test ton. Stand-in skipper Mahmudullah Riyad joined in with his second Test ton in the second innings.

Riding on these contributions, Bangladesh managed to avoid humiliation and won the second Test comprehensively by 218 runs to level the after the 151-run loss in Sylhet.

The upcoming series against the West Indies will be even tougher for the hosts and according to head coach Steve Rhodes, the hard-fought series against Zimbabwe would do a lot of good for Bangladesh against the Caribbean side.

"I think at Sylhet and Mirpur, Zimbabwe made us fight all the way. Some people might be a little bit surprised at the1-1 result and the hard-fought series. I think it will do us a lot of good going into a contest against the West Indies, who are obviously going to be tough opposition. We needed to go there with some tough games under our belt. Zimbabwe proved to be a tough opposition. I was very pleased with the Mirpur result but as you said, we wanted more than 1-1," Rhodes told reporters after the Tigers reached Chattogram yesterday.

Whether it is the team combination, the over-dependency on spin on home soil or even the top-order failures, there are a few areas of concerns for the Tigers as they prepare for a stronger opposition in the form of West Indies, who will have their tails up after a good outing in India in the ODI series.

"To be perfectly honest, we don't have many concerns. We are looking forward to the series against West Indies. They are excellent opposition, as we saw in June or July this year. Conditions are little bit different in Bangladesh, so hopefully we will have good games against them. They have got some injury problems with Jason Holder going home. We are without Tamim Iqbal; we wish him all the best to get back as quick as he could. It will be a good contest," he said.

Facing quality fast bowling has always been a vulnerability of Bangladesh batsmen and Rhodes said that the likes of Shannon Gabriel, who proved vicious against Bangladesh during their last tour earlier this year, would once again play a crucial role in the Test series.

However, he added that they were not worried about the opposition and were rather focusing on their own strengths.

The wicket at the Zahur Ahmed Stadium in Chattogram pitch has always been a batsman's paradise, but when it comes to gaining the advantage of home conditions the Bangladesh team management has not been able to utilise the luxury properly in recent times.

"I had a good look with the captain [Shakib Al Hasan] and curator [Zahid Reza]. What we are doing now is gather as much information as possible from the curator. We are lucky that Shakib has played here a lot. He knows the wickets well, more than I do. It is a learning curve for me. You get wickets right and wrong. I won't be saying how it's going to play," he said.

Martin Guptill played a full ball on leg stump from Jofra Archer to deep midwicket. Two runs were needed off the last ball of the Super Over and he put in a desperate dive -- the second fateful one in less than half an hour -- to complete the second, but there was too much ground between his bat and the World Cup trophy calling to him from just beyond the crease. Jos Buttler gathered the throw, which was well wide of the stumps, but there was enough time to whip the bails off, which he did and started running towards the gallery in ecstasy, followed by his teammates and fuelled by possibly the loudest roar ever heard at Lord’s.

England had won their first ever World Cup, had won it at home -- the third successive home victory in World Cups after India’s in 2011 and Australia’s in 2015.

But runs could not separate New Zealand and England in the greatest World Cup final yesterday, even though the teams had two chances to get ahead. The match saw two ties -- one in normal play and one in the Super Over. Buttler celebrated immediately because he knew that England, having hit more boundaries -- 22 fours and two sixes to New Zealand’s 14 fours and two sixes -- in the 50-over portion, had edged the tie-breaker to a tie-breaker.

England had sent Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes -- the man who made the Super Over possible with his last-over heroics -- and the duo hit two boundaries while scoring 15 runs off Trent Boult, who nearly defended 14 runs in the last over of normal time.

The pacey Jofra Archer came in to bowl for England and New Zealand had nominated Jimmy Neesham and Guptill to score the 16 runs that would give them their first World Cup. Archer started with a wide, conceded two the next ball and Neesham hammered a six off the third ball. With seven required off four balls Neesham scampered a pair of doubles before getting just a single off the penultimate ball. That set the stage for the last ball, after which there was heartbreak for New Zealand and elation for most of the 30,000 gathered at Lord’s.

Before the high-octane two-over finish, there was a pulsating 100-over contest that led up to that point. New Zealand bowled brilliantly to defend 241 for eight, and England’s Ben Stokes hit a nearly perfectly-paced 98-ball 84 to take England level after they were at one stage 86 for four.

It was nearly perfectly paced because he needed fortune to end up as the player-of-the-match. There was another despairing dive before Guptill’s, this one during the last over of normal play when England needed nine runs from three balls. Stokes, having just hit a six after playing two dot balls from Trent Boult, whipped a ball away to deep midwicket and dove to beat the throw -- from none other than Guptill -- and the ball deflected off the bat and ran away for four. That effectively brought six runs from the fourth ball. With three more required from the last two balls, Adil Rashid was run out at the non-striker’s end after Stokes had hit to long off. With two more needed off the last ball, last man Mark Wood was run out trying to take the match-winning second, bringing on the Super Over in a World Cup final that will go down in folklore as one of the greatest matches -- let alone World Cup finals -- ever played.

Before that, Buttler and Stokes had put on 110 runs for the fifth wicket to fish England out of trouble. Buttler was the dominant partner, scoring 59 off 60 balls. When the last 10 overs started England needed 72 runs with Buttler and Stokes at the crease. But that is when the Kiwis started turning it around as Jimmy Neesham and Lockie Ferguson bowled to their fields and dried up the boundaries. Buttler departed in the 45th over with 45 still left to win, caught in the deep off Ferguson trying to re-lease the pressure. Chris Woakes departed for 10 in the 47th over, caught behind off a fiery Ferguson. England needed 24 off the last two overs. Liam Plunkett holed out off Jimmy Neesham, caught at long off by Boult. In another stroke of luck for Stokes, Boult nearly pulled off a stunner off the fourth ball of the over when he caught the ball at the boundary, but his feet had touched the ropes before he could throw it back for a combination catch. Neesham then accounted for Jofra Archer, bowling him for a first-ball duck with a slower ball. With two wickets left and 15 runs to get, it seemed New Zealand’s match, but that is when the match turned from a classic to a thriller of epic proportions.

Earlier, the crunch battle was England’s belligerent opening pair of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow taking on New Zealand’s incisive new-ball duo of Trent Boult and Matt Henry.

The left-handed Boult almost accounted for Roy in the very first ball of the innings, rapping the right-hander with a sharp inswinger that seemed headed for the stumps. New Zealand reviewed the not-out decision, but the decision stayed with the umpire as just a part of the ball was hitting leg stump.

While New Zealand brought Test-match ethos by trying for wickets with early movement, Roy repre-sented England’s limited-overs motto by going hard at anything that was slightly off line or length. He hit three boundaries in that process, but Henry also had him playing and missing on numerous occasions with perfectly pitched outswingers. Eventually, Roy got close enough to one of those and edged through to the keeper in the sixth over with the score on 28.

If New Zealand’s bowling was in Test-match mode, their fielding was very much of the cutting-edge limited-overs variety, scampering after every ball and throwing themselves at every ball to support Boult, Henry, the pacey Lockie Ferguson and the variety-laden Colin de Grandhomme. Roy’s dismissal saw just 31 runs in the next 65 balls and it was the pressure built up through that concerted effort that induced Joe Root to go for an airy drive and edge behind to the keeper in the 17th over off de Grandhomme.

Bairstow departed next when he played on to a fast Ferguson lifter in the 20th over with the score reading 71 for three and the required run rate nudging six an over. That set the stage for New Zealand’s comparative weak link of Jimmy Neesham to come on and England skipper Eoin Morgan, perhaps trying to release the pressure, went early at a long hop off the first delivery and Ferguson took a superb catch running in from deep point and diving forward to send Morgan on his way.

Earlier still, ages ago it seemed by the end of the match, New Zealand were restricted to 241 for eight by a strong bowling performance from England. Liam Plunkett took three for 42 and Chris Woakes three for 37 as England successfully managed to deny New Zealand’s danger men Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor meaningful contributions, which they had done throughout the World Cup. Opener Henry Nicholls top-scored with 55. Even after Taylor and Williamson’s departures, New Zealand played within their means and concentrated on getting just enough runs on the board to put pressure on England in the biggest match of their lives in front of a partisan crowd. They put faith in their bowling lineup to dial up that pressure, and that is exactly what they did.

At the end, however, England proved equal to the task and their boundary count, and a stray deflection, saw them crowned champions at home.