Najmul Hossain Shanto has stepped down as Bangladesh T20I captain. BCB president Faruque Ahmed told a local newspaper that Shanto had informed the board of his decision but will continue to lead Tests and ODIs.
“Shanto has finally informed us that he will not continue as T20I captain. We have accepted his decision. However, there will be no T20 so we will not be thinking about a new captain yet. We have an agreement with Shanto that when he is fit, he will continue as Test and ODI captain,” Faruque said at the Dhaka base Prothom Hello on Thursday
This ends the subsequent captaincy debate Shanto had expressed reluctance to captain all formats in October. At that time, Faruque convinced Shanto to continue as captain in all formats. Shanto, however, got injured during an ODI against Afghanistan in November, which kept him out touring the West Indies.
There, Bangladesh handed over the Test and ODI captaincy to Mehidy Hasan Miraz. The visitors drew the Test series 1-1, before losing the ODIs 3-0. Litton Das then led the T20I side to a 3-0 series win. Whether the T20I result pushed the BCB to agree with Shanto is unknown, but the fact that Mehidy and Litton were good enough to be considered part of the leadership group was good news for Bangladesh cricket.
Shanto became Bangladesh’s all-format captain in February 2024. The appointment came after impressive spells against New Zealand at home and away in the absence of then-captain Shakib Al Hasan. Bangladesh’s subsequent T20I performances, however, were excellent as they lost bilateral series against Sri Lanka and USA. They managed to reach the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup last June though did not win a match in that round.
Shanto also suffered a dip in form in the format, scoring just one fifty in his 24 matches in charge, averaging 18.76 as T20I captain despite showing improved form in the format after the Cup of the World T20 2022 in Australia. Whether he continues to be a part of Bangladesh’s T20I side largely depends on his form during the BPL in progress.
Bangladesh’s next T20I assignment is likely to be a three-match series against Zimbabwe in March this year. Litton could be a favorite for the captaincy given his performance in the West Indies. That said, he has been out of sorts with the bat in white-ball cricket of late.
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