Two different Shakibs in the same net in Chattogram

Shakib Al Hasan recently achieved the feat of 400 wickets in T20 cricket. With the ball, he has been reliable like always in the ongoing Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) but what's troubling him for a while is the batting. At home, he failed against Australia and New Zealand and his bat did not shine either in the T20 World Cup last year.

13, 23, 1 - are Shakib's scores in the BPL. As the captain of the team, the all-rounder could not lead from the front with the bat and that is the prime reason why his team is not in a great position with just one win out of three matches. 

The southpaw understands that very well and is trying hard to get back to form as quickly as possible. Shakib turned up at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chattogram an hour earlier than scheduled on Thursday and was seen sweating it out with the bat.

After playing two matches in the Independence Cup (One Day tournament) in Sylhet, Shakib went back to Dhaka and had some individual batting sessions for two days. There he worked for a long time with Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, his childhood coach who is currently working as the batting coach of Shakib's team Fortune Barishal. 

Barishal will not feature in the BPL on Friday but Shakib was seen trying hard at the nets on Thursday. After reaching the ZACS at half past nine, Shakib started batting 15 minutes later. His teammates arrived at half past ten.

Shakib had thrower Ramzan Ali and assistant coach Ashiqur Rahman with him while he was practising. Shakib had a difficult time facing them in the first 30 minutes. He was shaky against both Ashiqur and Ramzan and at one stage he was livid with himself for not connecting the ball properly.

Then the southpaw took a break and returned as a different batter. Shakib smashed some big ones over mid-wicket, long-on and long-off as part of the power-hitting practice ahead of the next match. He batted with authority against Ramzan and Ashiqur's throwing as well.

After a productive session, Shakib took another break. By that time, Shakib's teammates had arrived at the ground. The Barishal captain then spent some time in gossiping with them and on the phone. Shakib participated in a football match during the practice session with his teammates and was seen scoring a goal as well. But the all-rounder did not bowl on Thursday.