Shakib Al Hasan has stamped his name on a number of first-ever feats for Bangladesh cricket but this time the Tigers’ talisman has again scaled uncharted heights. Tamim Iqbal has become the first Bangladeshi batsman to go past 9000 international runs in all formats combined.The 29-year-old allrounder, Shakib is now the highest wickettaker for Bangladesh across all formats of international cricket.
His tally in Tests (147) and Twenty20 International (65) had been out of reach for other Bangladesh bowlers for some time now, but he was one wicket shy of the record ODI tally when he got on the field in the first match against Afghanistan on Sunday.
Abdur Razzak had held the ODI record with 207 wickets but Shakib grabbed two in their narrow seven-run win to surpass his senior spinner.
He trapped Shabir Noor to match Razzak’s tally before making the game’s pivotal breakthrough with Rahmat Shah’s scalp to complete the feat.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza follows Shakib closely with 203 wickets in the 50-over affair but the southpaw’s career is likely to last longer than his captain’s.
It must be noted that T20I was introduced in 2005, hence most of the legends could not try out the shortest format.
In the older versions of cricket – Tests and ODIs – seven boast the record of holding the top wicket-tally in both forms for their countries.
The eccentric list includes West Indies’ Courtney Walsh, Paksitan’s Wasim Akram, India’s Anil Kumble, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, England’s James Anderson, Zimbabwe’s Heath Streak and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan – who also hold the world record in the two formats.
Muralitharan, Pollock and Anderson had the opportunity to play T20Is. – Agencies
The 27-year-old Bangladesh opener Tamim was 15 runs shy of the landmark when he opened the batting in the first ODI against Afghanistan at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The left-hander put away Afghan pacer Dawlat Zadran through backward square leg for a boundary in the third over to notch the feat from 285 innings in 248 matches
Allrounder Shakib Al Hasan follows him on second with 8324 runs while Mushfiqur Rahim is third with 7273 runs.
Mohammad Ashraful, on exile from international cricket at the moment, has 6655 runs at four.
Former captain Habibul Bashar is fifth with 5194 runs.
Tamim also tops the lists of the highest total score and highest innings score for Bangladesh across all three forms of the game. – Agencies
