After completing his practice session with his childhood mentor Najmul Abedin Fahim, ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan left the country on Thursday to join the Bangladesh team in Kolkata. The Tigers will face off Netherlands in their sixth match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens on Saturday. The reason of his hurried tour in Dhaka is believed to fix some technical glitches as he was going through a bad patch in the World Cup. Shakib who missed the match against India due to thigh injury, scored just 56 runs in four matches with the highest 40 came against New Zealand. He had, so far, taken six wickets at an economy rate of 5.54. Three of the six wickets came against Afghanistan. He had a three-hour long practice with Fahim, an advisor of BKSP–the country’s lone sports institute situated in Savar and a well-known veteran coach on Wednesday, immediately after he arrived in the country. On Thursday, he also had three-hour long session. Both Shakib and his mentor Fahim refused to talk about what they worked on in those two days. But, it is not difficult to assume. In his four matches in the World Cup where his score was 14, 1, 40 and 1, no team was seen to bowl Shakib to his strength. He was not given the opportunity to cut and drive, the two shots he played well.  Recently in an interview with a cricket-based website, Fahim said Shakib needs to work on leg side to increase the scoring opportunity. It is believed Fahim worked on this area with Shakib. However, the ace allrounder got a harsh welcome with fans booing him and chanting bhua, bhua (fake) while he was leaving the BCB academy premises.

-BSS.