Learned from Chandimal's knock says Shakib Al Hasan

Bangladesh allrounder Shakib Al Hasan went on to hit a crucial hundred on the third day of Bangladesh’s 100th Test against Sri Lanka. Shakib was more or less reckless on the second day when he came out to bat at a stage when his team had lost two quick wickets. It seemed that Bangladesh would be restricted well short of Sri Lanka’s total of 338 but Shakib’s knock proved to be vital.

The allrounder was pretty aggressive on the second day when he hit 18 off 8 deliveries but would have been out on the score of 11 if Upul Tharanga managed to grab a chance at deep square leg. But from the start of the third day, Shakib changed his approach towards the game and hit only two boundaries before lunch.

The left-hander could have been run out on 40 but was happy pushing the ball in the outfield to get runs. Shakib played with quite an intelligent mindset on day three which helped him bring up his fifth Test century off 143 deliveries.

The Bangladesh player wanted to do away with questions about his recklessness on day two of the Test as he stonewalled the same whenever the topic was brought up. But he agreed to the fact that he came out with a different mindset on the third day which got him the all important century on Bangladesh’s 100th Test.

After the day’s play Shakib said, “Yesterday, as I was not out, there was time at night to think about it. And in that time I thought about what approach would be good, especially the way Dinesh Chandimal batted in the first innings”

“I think there was a lot to learn from that knock with respect to how to bat in this innings. That helped. I had to work really hard to get those runs.”