Is Shakib Al Hasan an underrated Cricketer?
His teammates and coaches often refer to him as someone equivalent of two players because of his potency with the bat and the ball, Shakib Al Hasan has established himself as one of the best all-rounders in modern cricket. He has recently renewed the respect of the international cricket community with his dominant performance at the 2019 cricket world cup with a record all-round performance of 606 runs and 11 wickets. This prompted many cricket analysts all over the world to probe Shakib’s worth using various stats, while several experts raised the question if Shakib is an underrated cricketer and asked whether he receives the recognition he deserves. In this series of articles, I attempt to analyze Shakib’s career and records to understand his true value as an all-rounder compared to some of the best all-rounders of cricket from the past and contemporary era, and investigate the possible psychological factors that are obstructing his path to further success and recognition.
Shakib's prominence in the Ranking
Whether or not he is the best all-rounder in the world has often been a subject of debate, but if you simply go by ranking, Shakib’s consistent dominance at the top in the past decade is almost unmatchable at any format of the game.
Shakib's International Career at a glance (as of Oct 2019):
Other than rankings, statistics, and records, Shakib’s demand at the international stage has been quite evident in the last decade. He played in nearly every major domestic T-20 cricket tournament is the world including the Australian Big Bash, Caribbean Cricket League, Pakistan Super League, and the high profile Indian Premier League. In the 2019 world cup Shakib has renewed the respect he had earned from the cricket world with a dominant performance of 606 runs (average 86.57) and 11 wickets (average 36.27) from 8 matches.
While his performance has brought much joy and pleasure to cricket fans everywhere, many fans and pundits were taken back by Shakib’s level of consistency and renewed commitment to the game. Many experts started asking if Shakib is an underrated player and whether he gets the recognition he deserves. Hence, in this article, I try to analyze Shakib’s performance compared to the other contemporaries, and understand his true ability, and project where he may finish his career.
Is Shakib al Hasan underrated?
Whether or not Shakib is underrated can be a subject to your personal preference, cricket philosophy, and your geographic location. As Kimber (2019) writes, to the Bangladeshi fans he is the alpha and the omega, a 50-foot giant, a saviour, and a superhero, but to the casual cricket fans he is almost invisible. And this is probably a very accurate depiction of Shakib’s career and fame as a cricketer. In Bangladesh, you won’t meet a person who hasn’t heard of Shakib Al Hasan, and his teammates and coaches will always tell you that ‘one Shakib’ is equivalent to two players because his inclusion allows them to add an extra batsman or a bowler, because Shakib serves as a top order batsman and a very dependable full-time bowler.
But further he goes away from home, so does diminish his value among coaching staff that are reluctant to keep him in the roster, and so fades his recognition among cricket fans. He has played in nearly every domestic T-20I cricket league and performed well on a consistent basis but somehow people are still often taken aback when they see Shakib’s name on top of all-rounders’ ranking. When Shakib scored 600+ runs and took 10+ wickets many people were shocked although he has been performing in a similar fashion for nearly a decade.
There is more evidence that Shakib is often undervalued by teams, and coaches. For example, Shakib has been invited to play in the high profile Indian Premier League (IPL) for the last eight years and one would think that a player who has never slipped below no. 3 in the T-20I ranking since 2014 would be highly sought after by every team in the draft. But that has not been the case – teams rarely fought over Shakib in the recent IPL auctions, to them Shakib is at best a useful role player. In the 2019 edition of IPL, Shakib was sold at US$ 289,302, which is much lower than some of the other internationals with less impressive records, such as, Dwayne Bravo (US$925,766), Shane Watson (US$ 578,604), Andre Russel (US$1 million), and Kieron Pollard (US$781,115). Ben Stokes who is currently ranked below Shakib in Test, ODI, and T-20I was sold at a value (US$1.8 million) six times higher than Shakib. And as the tournament unfolded, Shakib’s circumstances did not improve as he was chosen by his team (Sunrisers Hydrabad) to play only one game in the entire tournament.
Following is an illustration that compares Shakib’s records in T-20 Internationals to that of some of today’s most reputed all-rounders including the ones mentioned above:
Neither rankings nor statistics are reliable representation of the true quality of a player because both overlook many situational aspects of the game that are not recorded in the scorecard. Hence, just because he has more runs, wickets, and better averages, it doesn't make Shakib a better player than Ben Stokes or any other all-rounders mentioned here. So, one can’t be blamed for picking Ben Stokes over Shakib especially after the summer of 2019 when Stokes lead the English to their first World Cup Trophy. But Shakib is not one sixth the player Ben Stokes is and the difference between Stokes and Shakib shouldn’t be 500% and, whichever way you look at it. Hence, Shakib is indeed an underrated player who is often valued much lower than what he is worth as an all-rounder.
Why is Shakib still so invisible to fans?
Despite his lasting presence at the top, Shakib is often a forgotten name among cricket fans, and at times, Shakib only has himself to blame. While he has been the most enduring name in the all-rounders’ ranking, kept cricket fans entertained for over a decade with 14 centuries and 21 five wicker hauls, he has also remained an extremely quiet performer. Here are some factors that explain why fans are not entirely at fault for forgetting Shakib from time to time.
(1) Missing games due to recurrent injuries
For a career that has spanned over a decade it’s not completely unusual to miss a few games or suffer from a few injuries. While Shakib deserves much credit for managing his career so well and maintaining his fitness to extend his mileage, he has missed more than his share of games, including a few tournament finals, as a result of injuries.
(2) Recurrent Disciplinary issues
(3) Repeated Voluntary leaves
If voluntary absence caused by injuries and suspensions weren’t bad enough Shakib has also taken a significant amount of leave of absence from the game throughout his career. Since his debut in 2006, Shakib has missed a total of 38 One Day Internationals, 13 Test Matches, and 13 T-20 Internationals. These missed games were primarily a result of injury and suspension because a fit Shakib has rarely ever been ignored by Bangladesh Cricket Board. His most controversial decision to take a leave was during Bangladesh’s important tour of South Africa in 2017, for which he received much criticism including from legendary All-Rounder Shaun Pollock. While rest is a critical element of sustainable career management, Shakib’s repeated voluntary leave has clearly deprived him of significant amount of runs and wickets that made it easier for fans to often forget his name.
(4) Inconsistency and lack of dominance
Shakib’s lack of consistency and dominance was further substantiated during his 8 years of IPL campaign. He is only one of four Bangladeshi players to be drafted in the IPL (other three being Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe, and Mustafizur Rahman), and the only player from his country to register an IPL appearance for 8 straight years. Given the level of competitiveness in the IPL these are incredible achievements for a Bangladeshi athlete. However, Shakib never managed to perform on a regular basis or establish himself as a star of the IPL. Following is an illustration that provides substance for Shakib’s inconsistency in the IPL.
Despite many downfalls and stretches of underwhelming performances Shakib has remained one of the best All-Rounders of his generation. But the problem with Shakib is, every time he ascended to the top of the mountain he simply didn’t know what to do with that position or how to fortify his legacy as the best in the world as a true great player would. The easiest example of this scenario is Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi who started career as very good but not great players. But once they reached the top they did become complacent and stop being hungry for success. That is what separates good players of every generation from Great players who become immortalized. But Shakib has clearly failed to achieve that. Every time he rose to the top, instead of raising his game to the next level he fell down, allowing others behind him to catch up and doubters to doubt all over again. Instead of cementing his legacy as best of his generation, Shakib has always found himself in a position where he has to reclaim his lost throne. Hence, much to the disappointment of his loyal fans, he has always remained the poor man’s Sobers or Kallis, as opposed to one who would be a worthy successor of such legends of the game.
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