Shakib Al Hasan and Rohit Sharma are the only two players to have played in every single edition of the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh’s experienced all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is hoping to play in the 2026 T20 World Cup but remains focused on performing well in the next month’s T20 World Cup, starting on June 2 .
Bangladesh veteran and former captain Shakib Al Hasan had hinted at taking a call on his international career after Champions Trophy 2025 in September last year. But he doesn’t have plans to quite any time soon it seems as the all-rounder is hoping to play another T20 World Cup in 2026 that will take place in India and Sri Lanka. Shakib is one of the only two players (Rohit Sharma being the other), to feature in all nine T20 World Cups and many felt it could be his last mega event in the shortest format.
Shakib Al Hasan T20I Career
Shakib Al Hasan and India captain Rohit Sharma are the only two players who have featured in each edition of the T20 World Cup so far. Earlier, it was speculated that this edition would be Shakib’s final appearance in the T20 showpiece. He is the leading wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup so far with 47 wickets in 36 matches. The all-rounder had previously desired to announce all-format retirement after the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Shakib Al Hasan has been an incredible servant for Bangladesh in all three formats of the game. He is among the only two cricketers in the world to have played all the editions of the T20 World Cup. The other is India skipper Rohit Sharma. Shakib Al Hasan has been one of the finest cricketers to have played the game of cricket. The all-rounder has been one of the main reasons why Bangladesh cricket has so much popularity as he has given his sweat and blood to the team.
Shakib Al Hasan recently hinted about his retirement as well. He stated that he will be taking a call on his career after the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The tournament will be played in Pakistan in February. However, now, Shakib Al Hasan expressed his desire to play more T20 cricket. He talked about sharing the feat of playing most world cups with Rohit Sharma and added that he wants to perform for his team and take them to glory.
Shakib Al Hasan keen to prolong his T20I career post 2024 T20I World Cup
Veteran Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib al Hasan has expressed his desire to prolong his T20I career well beyond the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, beginning on June 2. The former skipper takes pride in having played all the T20 World Cup editions thus far and want to help Bangladesh have a deeper run in the showpiece event.
Along with Rohit Sharma, Shakib is the only other cricketer to have featured in all the T20 World Cup editions. With 122 matches, the 37-year-old is the second-most capped player for Bangladesh in T20Is after Mahmudullah. Speaking in a video uploaded by BCB on Facebook, Shakib admitted that he didn’t think he would play for this long and hopes to see the Tigers do better than the previous tournament.
“Firstly, when I started I didn’t expect that I will play for so long and secondly since the start of T20 Cricket World Cup till this T20 World Cup, I have participated in all them along with Rohit Sharma. It is a matter of pride for me and I’m happy that I could represent the country.
“Me and Rohit Sharma are the only two players who played all the T20 World Cups and I hope that I can play another World Cup but before that would like to perform well in the tournament and Bangladesh can do better than previous T20 tournament.”
Bangladesh suffered a shocking series loss to USA recently, thereby affecting their confidence and preparation for the showpiece event.
“It should be the same competition between bat and ball” – Shakib Al Hasan
The spin-bowling all-rounder expects the pitches to favor Bangladesh and doesn’t want a lopsided contest. He elaborated:
“We always get favor their because those pitches are quite similar to ours back home. I hope we will get advantage in both the places. The only thing that I feel is that here it should be the same competition between bat and ball and it should not be one-sided and normally that is not the case with World Cups and I feel it would be the same this time round.”
Bangladesh’s opening match is against Sri Lanka on June 8 in Dallas but before that would take the opportunity to set the team combination right when they meet India in their only warm up matches in lead up to the cup.