5 reasons why Shakib-al-Hasan is the best all-rounder at the moment?

The talent pool in Bangladesh has always produced some fine players. Be it Mohammed Ashraful or Aftab Ahmed, Bangladesh have seen some really naturally gifted players playing for them. However, unfortunately, the aforementioned two players couldn’t do justice to their talents due to poor ethics.

The one player that did, though, was Shakib al-Hasan. The southpaw is one of the finest all-rounders in the game and is the greatest player the country has ever produced. It could be said that he set up the benchmark for the youngsters to follow as the players that come out of the system now are equally hardworking.

Without further ado, here are five reasons why Shakib Al Hasan is the best all-rounder in the world…

#5 Batting brilliance

It is not always when a spin-bowling all-rounder is such a good hitter of the ball, especially a slow-left armer. Shakib Al Hasan, however, breaks the norm as he is one of the finest middle order batsmen in the world. His ability to bat under any circumstances makes him a very potent danger for the opposition.

Be it smacking the ball all around the park or playing a sheet-anchor's role to build the innings, Shakib does it brilliantly. There is a saying in the country that as long as Shakib is at the crease, there is hope.

Batting is also something he loves more than bowling, although he admits that he has to work a lot harder with his batting than his bowling, as the latter comes more naturally to him.

Despite that, he has scored 3479 runs from 92 Test innings and 4983 runs from 167 ODI innings, at an average of 40.92 and 34.84 respectively – making him one of the best batsmen in the team.

#4 Bowling performances

Shakib is a clever bowler

When one watches him bowl, they realise that bowling is where his natural talents lie. He might be one of the best batsmen in the team, but that is more due to the insane amount of hard-work that he put in rather than talent. Bowling, however, comes as naturally to him as singing comes to a nightingale.

After Ravindra Jadeja, Shakib is arguably the best slow-left arm bowler in the world. Whenever there is a need of a wicket or to slow down the scoring rate of the opposition, the ball is thrown to Shakib and he almost never disappoints.

With 176 and 224 wickets from 82 and 174 innings in Tests and ODIs respectively, Shakib finds himself as one of the best bowlers in the world – and it will only get better as he enters the peak years of his career.

#3 Consistency

Shakib has more often than not delivered whenever Bangladesh wanted him to

The thing with Bangladesh is that the country has always produced talented players, but most of them weren’t consistent enough. Rather, they were more of flash-in-the-pan sort of players who performed once in a blue moon to wow the fans.

However, Shaklb was among the very first players to perform with a level of consistency never seen before from any Bangladeshi player. It is for this reason that the 30-year-old has been ever present in the team since arriving to the scene in 2006.

Indeed, Shakib has been holding his place as the top-ranked all-rounder in all three formats for a long, long time. Ravindra Jadeja took over the place in Tests for a while, but Shakib is once again the rank 1 all-rounder in the longest format of the game.

Currently, he is the top-ranked all-rounder in Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

#2 Match-winning ability

New Zealand v Bangladesh - ICC Champions Trophy

I do not see another player in the Bangladesh team with the ability to win matches like Shakib does. We have to look no further than the Tigers’ win against New Zealand. Bangladesh were facing certain defeat against the Kiwis, but Shakib, with the help of Mahmudullah Riyad, rescued the South Asian nation from almost certain defeat.

Chasing 266 set by the Kiwis, Bangladesh’s top order took a hit as they found themselves reeling at 33/4 after 11.4 overs. After that, Shakib and Mahmudullah steadied the innings in the best possible way. In the end, Shakib’s heroics helped Bangladesh qualify for the next round of the Champions Trophy as he scored 114 off 115 balls to get his team over the line.

This was just one of the many times he saved his team from adverse situations. It doesn’t matter whether it is with the bat or the ball, Shakib can all always be relied upon to do magic and help the team to win games from the toughest of situations

#1 Diligence

Shakib Al Hasan lends added flexibility to the side

Talent alone is never enough, just ask Mohammad Ashraful or Aftab Ahmed. The two aforementioned players had talent in abundance but lacked the diligence and temperament to go along with it and make it huge in the world of cricket.

When it comes to raw talent, Shakib might be below the already-named two players, but his dedication and hard work has brought him where he is today – on the pedestal of the cricket world.

Playing Shakib is like having two players in your team. A team might only consist of 11 names, but Shakib’s presence in the starting XI gives the impression that Bangladesh have named 12 players to take on their opponents.

Even after reaching the stage that he is now, where he is already the greatest ever player the country has produced, he doesn’t take anything for granted and keeps working hard to keep up with the best.