Najmul Hossain stated on Monday that he intends to emulate Shakib Al Hasan’s leadership philosophy as he prepares to lead the national team against New Zealand on September 26 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
The BCB appointed Najmul as their 16th ODI captain after another makeshift captain, Litton Kumar Das, who was given the responsibility after regular captain Shakib was rested for the entire series, requested a vacation to focus on his batting. Despite the fact that the hosts could lose their first series against New Zealand at home since 2010, Najmul appeared eager to accept the challenge.
“It is not a challenge but a matter to enjoy,” he said on the responsibility. “I am really feeling good for the opportunity and now the way our team is at the moment with the World Cup ahead. To be honest if we can end the game on a good note our team will be in a good shape and if I can end the game on a good note, it will be helpful for me as well,” Najmul told CricAdvisor prior to Monday’s third ODI at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
“We cannot think what happened in 2008 (their last ODI series loss to New Zealand at home) and it is important to end the game on a good note tomorrow. I think as a player this is a proud moment for me and for my family members. The board gave this opportunity and I am very excited about it. Hopefully I will enjoy it tomorrow,” he said.
“Shakib bhai has always been my favorite cricketer. As a captain we have seen MS Dhoni and everyone likes him a lot. Personally, I like the way Shakib bhai leads the team and handles the players. I had the opportunity to play with him in the BPL and learnt a lot of things from him. The experience I have and what I have learnt from my senior brothers I will try use it.”
Najmul also admitted that this journey from a player to captain has been quite pleasant even though he insisted he still has a long way to go. “If I have to talk about the journey, it is going really well though there is still a long way to go and I really enjoyed both the good times and bad times,” he said.
“In future if there is a possibility to lead the side, I will surely give it a try and to be honest this is a dream for every cricketer to lead his country. It (leading the national team) came to me this time and if there is an opportunity in future will try to fulfill the responsibility to the best of my ability,” he added.
Regarding their preparation for the World Cup, Nazmul added that he does not believe that the outcome of the match against New Zealand will have any bearing.
“Winning any game is important and if we can win tomorrow and there will be a good feeling around but if we lose, I don’t think it will have a huge impact on us in the World Cup,” he said adding that he also feels that relatively low scoring wickets in SBNS can also be beneficial for them in the global event.
“I think we are working on our preparation for a long time and as far as wicket is concerned the wicket can be good or bad in the World Cup and that we don’t know but we can assume the wicket will be good but we need to prepare for both kind of wickets and there are wickets in India where lots of runs are not scored. We will try to play the game as the wicket demands and if we can do that, we can say we have prepared well.”
