My top five moments from Bangladesh's 100 Tests

West Indies vs Bangladesh, Second Test, 17-19 July 2009, St George’s

Bangladesh won by 4 wickets

The Bangladesh team celebrating their victory over West Indies in 2009

When journalists write about this win they always feel the need to explain that this was a severely depleted West Indian side - a contract dispute meant they were missing their entire starting eleven. I’m really not bothered by that. It’s like when teams rest players against Bangladesh. It’s fine if you want to do that, just don’t use it as an excuse if you lose.

This game meant a lot though. It was amazing to see Bangladesh in control, confident and playing with their chin up. Often against the ropes or playing for pride - this was different because we were playing to win. And even though it was a weakened West Indies side, after a decade of heavy losses it was a new set of emotions to go through and ones I enjoyed experiencing.

And something else happened. Off the back of this series, a Bangladeshi became the world’s number one all-rounder, because of his match-winning performances in the series. He’s stayed in the Top 3 across all formats of the game since and because of him Bangladesh finally had a superstar.

Yes, people had vaguely heard of Ashraful and Bashar - but this was different. People knew who he was, knew he could walk into any team and knew he was the best in the world. In sport you need heroes. India had Tendulkar, West Indies had Lara and now Bangladesh had Shakib Al Hassan.