Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes heaped a shower of praise for Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan, the captains of Bangladesh in three formats of cricket.
While Mashrafe is leading the side in ODI game because of playing just one format of cricket, Shakib is the captain of the team in Test and T20 format, reports BSS.
Rhodes pinned hope on these two captains to fulfill the ambition of the nation while he believed the other players also came of age to aptly support the duo.
“Mashrafe leads in a warrior-like fashion,” Rhodes told the reporters at Cardiff on Sunday. “He is very much the person at the front, very much the person that people respect. He wouldn’t ask anybody to do something that he couldn’t do or wouldn’t try himself.
If he wanted to run through the wall, they would give it a go. And I know that is a great attribute for a captain. I try and support him in some of the areas, just try and work on our relationship a lot, and it seems to work quite well.”
“The other one is Shakib in the different formats. They’re different types of captains. Shakib is a tactical captain with immense knowledge of opposition, and what to do at the right time. So my working with them two is, actually, I work in a very different way.
But again, it is to get the very best out the situation, the relationship, and for Bangladesh cricket. It is not me dictating what is going on, it is making sure the bus has stayed in the right direction.”
It isn’t just as an on-field leader that Shakib offers extra to his team – he is one of the very best players in the world.
“Shakib is world No.1 in ODIs as an all-rounder,” Rhodes said. “The next, probably nearest, might be Mustafizur Rahman with the ball at 10, something like that. So he is really our only one in that top bracket. It doesn’t mean to say we haven’t got good cricketers”
Shakib was ruled out of the tri-series final with back spasm but Mosaddek Hossain Saikat stepped up magnificently in his place to help Bangladesh win first multinational trophy. That also was something which pleased Rhodes much.
“Mosaddek was a guy who replaced Shakib in the final against West Indies in the tri-nations, and had a magnificent game – fifty-odd off 20-odd balls to win, that’s Mosaddek Hossain. So he replaced Shakib in that top seven, and bowled spin. So we have managed to do OK without Shakib.
But missing Shakib always disrupts the team combination, revealed Rhodes.
“But when he (Shakib) doesn’t play, it can cause a few issues. Not only in missing the best player that you have got, but also your balance of the team.
Shakib is such an important batter and bowler and also a person with immense tactical ability.”