Rangpur Riders skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan on Tuesday heaped praise on star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan after he delivered a scintillating all-round performance against Durdanto Dhaka during his side’s seventh Bangladesh Premier League match in Mirpur.
Shakib, who struggled in batting due to his eye problem in the ongoing meet, struck a brilliant 34 off 20 balls to show some sign of returning to form with the bat while he also took three wickets in Rangpur’s commanding 60-run win over Dhaka.
The left-handed batsman recently spent hours in the net batting session to return to his best but his innings against Dhaka, which consisted of three sixes and a four, surely would be a great boost for the talismanic all-rounder in the coming phase of the tournament.
“The way Shakib bhai expressed his commitment to the team as well as for him, I think it was the most important thing in the match,” Nurul said in the post-match press conference.
“I think he was trying to make himself ready for it through the practice sessions. He had to work really hard and I think the way he tried to make a comeback will inspire us a lot,” he said, adding that the whole Rangpur set-up has full trust in Shakib and they are also supporting him to the fullest.
“I think the whole team management has been supporting him. He is also working really hard…During the practice, he told us that he feels alright to bat at number three and the full management supported his decision,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Dhaka’s Australian recruit Alex Ross, who became Shakib’s first scalp in the contest, didn’t shy away from giving the batsman credit for his batting effort in the contest.
“Yeah, great innings. You can’t drop good players. We dropped him twice, I think. There was a caught behind that we dropped …And then we dropped him on the boundary too,” he said.