Bangladesh’s ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan will enter the second phase of his cricket career today after the end of his ban, which had threatened to expose the Tigers in a packed cricket calendar but in the end caused minimum damage.

The ace all-rounder was sanctioned for not disclosing multiple conversations with a bookmaker, Deepak Agarwal, during Bangladesh’s triangular home series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2018 and also while he was playing in the Bangladesh Premier League and Indian Premier League.

ICC banned Shakib for two years, with one year of that suspended due to him accepting all three charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

But Shakib is free to once again take part in competitive cricket from today, a prospect that excited all his national team-mates, said Bangladesh Twenty20 skipper Mahmudullah.

‘The most important thing is that Shakib is coming back. Our boy is returning home, that’s the most pleasing thing. We are all eagerly waiting to play with Shakib once again,’ Mahmudullah told New Age on Wednesday.

The news of Shakib’s ban was a bolt from the blue for Bangladesh cricket as it came just days before the national team was set to fly to India to play their first complete series against the neighbouring nation.

Bangladesh managed to win the first Twenty20 against India in Delhi, their first ever T20 win over India, before losing the remaining two T20s and suffering innings defeats in the following two-Test series, which also included both country’s first day-night Test.

Next, Bangladesh toured Pakistan twice; firstly for three Twenty20s, where the visitors got pummeled by the hosts in the first two matches and the third one got rained out and secondly for the first match of the two-Test series in Rawalpindi, where the Tigers suffered another crushing defeat.

Bangladesh then clean-swept Zimbabwe at home in all three formats in February-March, which were Bangladesh’s last international fixtures before the pandemic put everything to a halt.

Had the global outbreak not occurred, Bangladesh would have had to take part in the Asia cup Twenty20, ICC T20 World Cup and play ICC World Test Championship matches against Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka without their best player.

But due to the COVID-19 pandemic all of those matches got postponed and Bangladesh went into a sort of a ‘COVID-19 sanction’ from international cricket, which is still continuing.

With the suspension ending, Shakib will now make his come back to cricket in the next month’s Bangabandhu Twenty20 League, according to Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan.

‘Shakib will come. We have talked and he will be here [in Bangladesh] before November 10, maybe even earlier. He has already ensured that he will play in the T20 tournament,’ Nazmul told the reporters after the BCB President’s Cup final on Sunday.

The 33-year old all-rounder was planning to make his comeback through Sri Lanka Tests and was preparing for it in his alma mater BKSP under his childhood mentor Nazmul Abedin Fahim and coach Mohammad Salahuddin.

But the series eventually got postponed on September 28 due to disagreement of quarantine policy and Shakib returned to his family in the USA on October 1.

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo was excited for Shakib’s return to cricket but asked everyone not to put too much pressure on him to perform straightaway.

‘He [Shakib] hasn’t played cricket for a year now. He is keen to play. He is the best all-rounder in the world. But he will also need to find his way… He will also need some time to find his feet and get his confidence back,’ Domingo said in a virtual press conference on October 23.

Mohammad Ashraful, who served a five-year ban for his involvement in a spot-fixing scandal, was confident that the long sabbatical won’t dent Shakib’s performance.

‘For a player like him, staying out of action for one year will not cause a big drop in skill level. His return could be prolific like [Steven] Smith and [David] Warner,’ Ashraful told New Age.

Shakib’s long-time team-mate Abdur Razzak felt the COVID-19 outbreak had put everyone on level with Shakib and felt that he will not take too long to regain his rhythm.

‘What he has faced due to sanction, every other cricketer in the world has faced more or less the same thing as there was no cricket for a long time… Match practice is different from individual training, so he might take little time to adjust but with his calibre I don’t think he will feel any problem to return after his ban.’