Shakib Al Hasan's 3 best performances vs India

It was the ever-reliant Shakib Al Hasan who once again stood tall for Bangladesh in their Asia Cup 2023 encounter against India on Friday, September 15.

Although it was a dead rubber for both teams, with Bangladesh already knocked out of the tournament and India having reached the final - where they will face Sri Lanka, it was more of a dress rehearsal for both sides trying to fill in the visible gaps in the squad.

Shakib Al Hasan's all-round show, combined with the spinners chocking the run flow in the middle overs, helped Bangladesh sneak out a win despite Shubman Gill's splendid century on a tough Colombo wicket.

Shakib not only revived Bangladesh's innings from 59/4 by scoring 80 valuable runs but also chipped in with the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav. The veteran all-rounder always likes to play against India, regardless the format or the occasion.

On that note, let's look at some of Shakib Al Hasan's finest performances against India.

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Shakib Al Hasan's 3 best performances vs India

#3. 5/62, Chittagong Test, 2010

It was Shakib Al Hasan's show at Chittagong in the first Test in 2010 as the left-arm spinner bagged a fifer against an Indian batting line-up comprising the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, etc.

After getting a solid start from the openers, India were on course to put up a huge first-innings total. But then came Shakib, who broke the middle order with his variations. He and Shahadat Hossain shared the wickets between them, folding up the Indian innings for just 243 runs, with Shakib ending up with figures of 5/62.

Although Shakib could not contribute that much with the bat, with the ball in hand, he was phenomenal in both innings. He finished with figures of 2/112 in the second innings.

#2. 85 runs and 1/58, Dhaka ODI, 2010

It was that phase of Bangladesh cricket when it was finding its feet as a permanent Test-playing nation, and, at the same time, trying to get rid of the minnows tag in white-ball cricket.

And what better way to establish that than by hosting India and Sri Lanka in an ODI tri-series at home?

In the sixth match at Dhaka, Bangladesh felt they were having a Deja Vu of getting bundled out for low totals once again when S Sreesanth and Ashish Nehra rocked the top order early on, reducing the hosts to 95/5 in the 24th over.

Shakib Al Hasan, along with Mahmudullah, then stabilized the innings with controlled aggression and ensured that their team had something to fight for.

Shakib missed out on a well-deserved century and got out after scoring 85 runs, propelling the team's total to 247/6.

He also took the all-important wicket of MS Dhoni with the ball in hand.

#1. 5/36 and 29 runs, Dhaka ODI, 2022

The Indian batsmen's woes against spin in recent times are something that everyone knows about. Unlike their predecessors, the current corpus of Indian batsmen try to read the turn from the pitch rather than from the bowler's hand.

And this was visible when Shakib Al Hasan rattled the famed line-up with some smart bowling on a pitch that was on the slower side, with balls reaching out to the batsmen later than their anticipation.

Shakib varied his speed, which made it very difficult to get away for Indian batsmen, who on most occasions looked to play across.

Shakib finished with a fabulous figure of 5/36, helping bundle India out for just 186.

Also, in a difficult chase considering the conditions and pitch, his 29 runs were nothing short of gold dust.