Najmul Hossain Shanto Named Captain of Bangladesh Cricket Team in All Three Formats

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Monday named Najmul Hossain Shanto as their new skipper in all three formats. The news came as a surprise for many as bowling allrounder Shakib Al Hasan was expected to be the captain of Bangladesh in the forthcoming T20I World Cup. Shanto displayed a stellar performance in their previous T20I series against New Zealand, where Bangladesh clinched a 5-wicket win in the first short-format match of the series. Speaking at a press conference, BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that they decided after discussing it with Shakib. According to Nazmul, the former Bangladesh skipper said that "his eye problem hasn't gone away". Afghanistan Squad for T20Is Against Sri Lanka Announced: Ibrahim Zadran to Lead in Absence of Rashid Khan.

"We have elected (Najmul Hossain) Shanto as captain in all three formats. We discussed the national team captaincy for the longest time in this meeting. We spoke to Shakib, who told us that his eye problem hasn't gone away. We are not sure of his availability in the Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe home series. We also have to consider the T20 World Cup that's coming up," Nazmul said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"Shakib is definitely our first choice. But we don't want to stay in any uncertainty. We didn't want to delay the decision. We had the World Cup in mind so to run the team smoothly, we had to pick a captain," he added.

In the upcoming day, the Bengal Tigers will face Sri Lanka in a three-format series starting on March 4.

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