Shakib's Bowling Triumph In Test Match Cricket

Shakib Al Hasan is Bangladesh's most valuable cricketer of all time, best all-rounder of this generation and currently ranked no.1 in Test format. His consistency in bowling department through-out his entire career is one of the reasons he's enabled of building his legacy. Recently his amount of Test wickets has reached to 200. He became first Bangladeshi and 72nd bowler in Cricket history to reach this milestone. And he simultaneously broke the record of quickest to reach 3,000+ Test runs and 200+ Test wickets. During this adventurous career of 54 Test matches, he has a total of  18 five-wicket hauls, 2 ten-wicket hauls and the best bowling figure of 7-36 against New Zealand. This is Mashhud Hasan from Frenzyweb360 and today I'm going to discuss about Shakib's paths of reaching 200 Test wickets.

Before the Test series against West Indies, Shakib was concerned on whether he was going to play the 1st Test match or not. Coach Steve Rhodes insisted him by possibly the most positive way to play the 1st Test. Shakib was able to have only 3-4 net sessions before his epic comeback. After a long lay-off, Shakib came to bowl at the 12th over. In the first ball, he delivered a slow and loopy delivery through the off-stump which Braithwaite lopped it with the high part of his bat and the ball was found inside Soumya's hand before getting a drop. In that same over, Shakib took another wicket and this time the prey was Shai Hope. Shai Hope wasn't able of catching up the flight and the impact of the ball and therefore, he got bold viciously. Shakib ended that innings up with 3 wickets in his pocket. At the 2nd innings, he took another 2 wickets. He completed his milestone of 200 wickets by stumping Kieran Powell out. In the 2nd Test match, Shakib changed the bowling line-up into a radical fashion and used four spinners (and no pacer).  As assumed, Shakib opened with the bowl once again in the 1st innings and took Braithwaite's wicket at the last ball of the over. Later, he took another wicket of Sunil Ambris with an arm ball which Ambris attempted to whip through the cover but ended up getting bold out. In a whole, Shakib took 9 wickets out of 4 innings in that series. He also played a valiant role with the bat. A courageous 34 in the 1st innings of 1st Test and a blistering innings of 80 runs at the 2nd Test helped him getting awarded as the Man Of The Series.

Shakib is a stunning batsman. Particularly in Test format, he's the best batsman of his nation's side (best bowler as well). But he makes most of his significance with bowling. But the beginning of his journey in Test cricket was rough. He took only 3 wickets out of his first 6 Test matches. Later on, Jamie Siddons announced that he was going to use Shakib as the lead bowler at the upcoming New Zealand series. Everybody was surprised, but the man with the golden arm wasn't surprised. He took 7 wickets by conceding 36 runs at the 1st innings. He didn't take much time proving his capability over the grassy wickets of South Africa. Following year, Bangladesh had a tour in South Africa. Even though it was a one-sided series, Shakib took two consecutive five wicket hauls at Bloemfontein and Centurion respectively. At the Dhaka Test against Sri Lanka, he took another five-for and became the first Bangladeshi to take 3 consecutive five wicket hauls. He has five wicket hauls against some of the most devilish pitches for the spinners. He took 5 out of 121 runs at the Manchester against England. He is one of 3 bowlers in Cricket history to have 5 wicket hauls against all elementary test playing nations (Rest of the 2 are Dale Steyn and Rangana Herath).

He is frightening mostly against West Indies and England. West Indies batsmen always crumble against Shakib's bowling. Shakib has a total of 46 wickets out of only 10 matches (18 innings) including 3 five wicket hauls. He took 29 wickets out of 11 innings against England. Shakib also took 29 wickets (out of 12 innings) against Sri Lanka. He has 26 wickets (out of 12 innings) against Zimbabwe and the same amount of wickets against New Zealand (out of 14 innings). Two of his ten wicket hauls are against Zimbabwe and Australia. The impact that Shakib puts on the result is fascinating. On the winnings matches of Bangladesh, Shakib took 65 wickets out of 11 matches (22 innings) including 6 five wicket hauls and a couple of ten wicket haul. He has 63 wickets out of 17 matches (29 innings) in Dhaka & 55 wickets out of 15 matches (27 innings) in Chittagong.

Shakib is one of the best spinners of Test Cricket history and arguably the best all-rounder in Cricket history. Shakib is extremely agile with his bowling performance. He consistently takes wickets on short intervals. He's one of very few bowlers to be inducted as the opening bowler of the nation even after being a spinner. With the new ball, the accuracy and angularity he delivers through the cross of the seam during his arm balls are hard to predict. With the old ball, he either delivers sliders or off-breaks with unpredictable flight to put on trap at the down the wicket for the batsman. Due to his variation of flight, length and impact, he eventually became one of the frightening spinners of the Cricket world, especially in Test format. He is one of 3 prestigious members of a league that contains those who has 10,000+ runs and 500+ wickets in international Cricket (Rest of the 2 are Jaques Kallis and Shahid Afridi). He is not a big turner of the ball but an intellectual mind reader that helps him put traps for the batsmen.

Shakib built his legacy through sheer persistence and perseverance. Although he never gets the respect that he deserves but this is pretty much undeniable that the legacy that he already built can never be tarnished. As a leader, he's very aggressive. As a middle order batsman, he's very dependable and cunning. As a bowler, he's fluid and agile. But as an all-rounder, he's the greatest. He's at the pinnacle of his career and so does Bangladesh.