“The 2025 Champions Trophy for ODIs and the 2024 T20 World Cup for T20Is. Tests may be sooner. Maybe (after the World Cup),” Shakib said. “I will retire all at once, but I will stop playing each format one by one. I will announce my retirement after the 2025 Champions Trophy.”
He said he had initially refused the captaincy for the Asia Cup too, after Tamim resigned in early August, but took on the responsibility thinking about the team.
“Given the current reality, I am captain only till the World Cup. Not a day more,” Shakib said. “I resigned from the captaincy on the 17th [of September]. I informed Papon bhai and emailed the CEO that I don’t want to be the captain. The reasons were the same when I didn’t want to captain ahead of the Asia Cup. I don’t think my captaincy is adding value at this stage of my career. I wanted to just bowl my ten overs, give my best in fielding, and do my batting.
“The easiest thing to do for me would have been not to take the captaincy. When he offered me the job, I immediately told him I don’t want to do it in this situation. At this age, I didn’t want to take this pressure. I want to smile, enjoy my game, perform for Bangladesh.
“[Papon] described the situation to me. A captain has to do the job on and off the field. When I learned that the BCB, coach and team management were unanimous in their decision about me, then I took the captaincy.”
In his second stint as full-time ODI captain, Shakib has led Bangladesh so far only in the Asia Cup, where they beat Afghanistan and India in five matches. Bangladesh are now in India for their World Cup warm-up fixtures against Sri Lanka and England on September 29 and October 2 in Guwahati. Their first match of the tournament is against Afghanistan on October 7 in Dharamsala.
