Shakib told me he will score the fastest 100 in Tests: BCB president

Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan came to bat with the intention to score the fastest Test hundred by a Bangladeshi, according to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan.

The ace-allrounder scored 87 from just 94 balls before getting out on day 2 of the only Test against Ireland on Wednesday at Mirpur's Sher-E-Bangla National cricket stadium. 

"I hurried to the stadium to see two centuries. One happened (Mushfiqur Rahim) but the other slipped away. Shakib told me beforehand that he will score the fastest 100 for Bangladesh in Tests. I told him to not rush things and to first score a fifty. Shakib played well but the century didn't happen. He remained 13 runs away," Nazmul told the media on Wednesday. 

Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar hold the record for the fastest Test hundred for a Bangladesh batter.

Tamim scored it in 2010 against England off 94 balls while Soumya scored it more recently, against New Zealand in 2019.

Bangladesh have played this Test match in a more aggressive manner, especially in batting, where they had their highest innings run rate in Test history (minimum 300 runs) of 4.58 runs per over. 

"The positive mentality from the players is appreciable. However, we are not a really good team in Tests yet. Watching today's performance made me feel good. Yesterday's performance really ruined my mood. The reality is we have a long way to go. But I feel in a year, Bangladesh will become a good Test-playing nation," Hassan expressed. 

The BCB President explained that with Bangladesh playing more Tests in the near future, the team will get better. 

"We don't get the opportunity to play too many Tests against the top teams. We have to play 14 Tests in a year, and that will be no easy task. We will have a good team through this though, I believe," he concluded.