Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has been appointed the new ODI Captain for Bangladesh leaving his predecessor, Mushfiqur Rahim to only lead in Tests. Also, Shakib Al Hasan will be Mortaza’s deputy in ODI’s while Tamim Iqbal will do the same for Mushfiqur in Tests. The reasoning behind the decision is to have the four most experienced players in the team share the leadership roles with the team having a dismal 2014. Also Mushfiqur’s captaincy period, which was set to go on till the 2015 World Cup has been terminated and he will only lead in the upcoming series against Zimbabwe from Novermber 21.
On the contrary, Mushfiqur has had a very good year with the bat, being the highest run scorer in ODI’s with 491 runs at an average of 44.63. He averages 34.35 as captain, higher than the 28.26 career average. In Tests he has been the second highest run scorer in the team with 274 runs at an average of 45.66. His average as captain in this format has been 44.50, much higher than his overall average of 33.60. But the BCB insists that the decision was done to relieve some of the burden of captaincy and help him focus more on his batting.
"The board has decided to appoint Mashrafe Mortaza as ODI captain for the Zimbabwe series," BCB president Nazmul Hassan said. "His deputy will be Shakib Al Hasan. Mushfiqur Rahim will remain as Test captain, with Tamim Iqbal being his vice-captain. Before we announced the new captain, the board has spoken to Mushfiqur, who was not negative about any of this.
“We considered Mushfiqur's form as a batsman as one of the major reasons to relieve him of the ODI captaincy. He is batting very well, and he can improve even more. So to captain the team, keep wicket and bat in this manner must be very difficult. He will remain as Test captain in the Zimbabwe series, and see how he performs. We believe of seeing a positive outcome of this decision in the Zimbabwe series," said Hassan.
This is the first time Bangladesh will have split captaincy in its cricket history and one will hope that the results will be positive.