Shakib Al Hasan

Shakib Al Hasan (Bengali: সাকিব আল হাসান, romanized: Sākib āl hāsān; born 24 March 1987) is a former Bangladeshi international cricketer who played Test, ODI and T20I cricket for the Bangladeshi cricket team. He was a former member of Parliament for Magura-1. He is known for his aggressive left-handed batting style in the middle order and controlled slow left-arm orthodox bowling. He was the captain in all three formats of the game for the Bangladesh national cricket team. He was ranked the 90th most famous athlete in the world by ESPN in 2019. He is widely regarded as the greatest Bangladeshi sportsman, and considered as one of the greatest all-rounders of all time.

Shakib Al Hasan made his Test debut in 2007 against India. His breakthrough came in the Test against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2008, where he picked up 7 wickets for 36 runs, the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler at that time. He quickly established himself as one of the team's leading performers. He has scored over 4,000 runs and taken more than 200 wickets in this format. He has also captained the team on their first-ever Test match win over England in 2016. In ODIs, Shakib has been more successful. He has scored over 6,000 runs and taken more than 270 wickets in the format, becoming the fastest player in history to achieve the double of 5,000 runs and 250 wickets in ODIs. In the 2012 Asia Cup, Shakib scored 237 runs, including three fifties, and took six wickets. Bangladesh progressed to the tournament's final for the first time but eventually lost to Pakistan by 2 runs, and he was awarded the Player of the tournament award in that season. He is considered one of the most impactful players of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he broke the record of maximum runs scored in the group stages of the World Cup which was previously held by Sachin Tendulkar and finished as the third-highest run-scorer, scoring 606 runs in total at the tournament.

He has played for various T20 tournaments around the world for many teams, including Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Jamaica Tallawahs and Dhaka Dominators, where he won the Indian Premier League (IPL) twice with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012 and 2014. He also won the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) title 3 times in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with Dhaka Dominators. He was named the player of the tournament in BPL, a record four times in 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2022. He has won 41 man-of-the-match awards, the highest for Bangladesh and 16 man-of-the-series awards, 3rd highest, in all formats. Between 2009 and 2022, he captained the Bangladesh cricket team in 120 matches across all three formats.

Shakib Al Hasan is an integral asset to the Bangladesh cricket team and has been a consistent performer for his country over the years. Shakib's career has been filled with controversies over the years, consistently making it to the top of domestic media headlines. He is considered one of the most influential and followed people in Bangladesh. He was ranked the 90th most famous athlete in the world by ESPN in 2019. He was included in the ICC Men's Team of the Year twice (2009, 2021). As of July 2024, Shakib holds the record for the 3rd most men's T20 International wickets.