"I hope that I can play another World Cup" - Shakib Al Hasan keen to prolong his T20I career
Veteran Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan has expressed his desire to prolong his T20I career well beyond the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, beginning on June 2. The former skipper takes pride in having played all the T20 World Cup editions thus far and want to help Bangladesh have a deeper run in the showpiece event.
Along with Rohit Sharma, Shakib is the only other cricketer to have featured in all the T20 World Cup editions. With 122 matches, the 37-year-old is the second-most capped player for Bangladesh in T20Is after Mahmudullah.
Speaking in a video uploaded by BCB on Facebook, Shakib admitted that he didn't think he would play for this long and hopes to see the Tigers do better than the previous tournament.
"Firstly, when I started I didn't expect that I will play for so long and secondly since the start of T20 Cricket World Cup till this T20 World Cup, I have participated in all them along with Rohit Sharma. It is a matter of pride for me and I'm happy that I could represent the country.
"Me and Rohit Sharma are the only two players who played all the T20 World Cups and I hope that I can play another World Cup but before that would like to perform well in the tournament and Bangladesh can do better than previous T20 tournament."
Bangladesh suffered a shocking series loss to USA recently, thereby affecting their confidence and preparation for the showpiece event.
"It should be the same competition between bat and ball" - Shakib Al Hasan
The spin-bowling all-rounder expects the pitches to favor Bangladesh and doesn't want a lopsided contest. He elaborated:
"We always get favor their because those pitches are quite similar to ours back home. I hope we will get advantage in both the places. The only thing that I feel is that here it should be the same competition between bat and ball and it should not be one-sided and normally that is not the case with World Cups and I feel it would be the same this time round."
Bangladesh's opening match is against Sri Lanka on June 8 in Dallas.