Raqibul relishes opportunity

Raqibul Hasan, who has not played in a Test match since facing the West Indies in Dhaka in 2011, has been named in the 30 man preliminary squad for the upcoming home series against New Zealand.   To date, Raqibul has played nine Tests, 55 one day internationals and five T20 matches for Bangladesh. He is the only Bangladeshi player to score a triple century in first class cricket.   The elegant batsmen had a decent start to his international career, but shocking announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on the eve of the Test series against England in March 2010,after being left out of the ODI series. Raqibul subsequently apologised for his sudden decision to retire from cricket and was soon back on the field for Bangladesh.    Speaking about his retirement, Raqibul said, “That was an emotional decision which I took at that moment. As you know, I was very young then and I regret the decision now.”   In ODIs, Raqibul has scored over 1300 runs, including eight half centuries. His last match was against Australia in Dhaka in 2011, where he failed to score a run.   His greatest strengths are a sound technique and patient temperament and this has marked him down in certain quarters as a Test cricket specialist. Raqibul, however, said, “I don’t want to tag myself as a specialist Test batsman, as I am capable of playing both ODI and T20,” he said.   The man from Jamalpur sees his recall as an opportunity and is determined to make a comeback into the national side in the upcoming New Zealand series.  “I have been working hard on my batting and I scored 168 runs against Barisal in the NCL last season and I also scored a century in the BCL,” said Raqibul.