Najmul Hossain Shanto (; born 25 August 1998) is a Bangladeshi

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and current captain of the Men's national team for

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

. He was also a former captain of

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

s and

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

. He is the second Bangladeshi cricketer to score a century in domestic

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

s after

Sabbir Rahman Mohammad Sabbir Rahman (; born 22 November 1991) is a Bangladeshi cricketer. He is from Rajshahi and besides the national team, he plays for Rajshahi Division in domestic cricket. He is a batter who occasionally bowls leg spin. He was the highest ...

. In December 2015, he was named in Bangladesh's squad for the

2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2016 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament held in Bangladesh from 22 January to 14 February 2016. It was the eleventh edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be held in Ban ...

. He was also selected for the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 and scored the most runs (180 runs in 5 matches) for the

Bangladesh cricket team The Bangladesh men's national cricket team (), commonly known as The Tigers, is the national cricket team of Bangladesh, administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). They are a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with ...

Early and personal life

Shanto comes from Ranhat in Rajshahi, and began his cricket training at the Clemon Rajshahi Cricket Academy. The academy was almost 20 kilometres away from his home, so he would cycle and walk each day to get there. He married Sabrin Sultana Ratna in 2020 during the lockdown of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Domestic career

He made his

(T20) debut on 8 November 2016 playing for

Comilla Victorians Comilla Victorians () is a Bangladeshi professional men's cricket team which competed in the Bangladesh Premier League, a T-20 cricket league. The team is based in Cumilla, a city in eastern Bangladesh. Comilla Victorians won the BPL title 4 ti ...

in the

2016–17 Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League 2016, also known as BPL Season 4 and AKS BPL 2016 (for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level professional Twenty20 cricket franchise league in Bangladesh. Th ...

. In December 2017, he and Mizanur Rahman, batting for

Rajshahi Division Rajshahi Division () is one of the eight first-level administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It has an area of and a population at the 2022 Census of 20,353,119. Rajshahi Division consists of 8 districts, 70 upazilas (the next lower administrat ...

against

Dhaka Metropolis The Dhaka Metropolis cricket team is a Bangladeshi first-class cricket team based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The team competes in the National Cricket League. Dhaka Metropolis played in the 2000–01 season, playing most of its home games at the ...

in the

2017–18 National Cricket League The 2017–18 National Cricket League was the nineteenth edition of the National Cricket League, a first-class cricket competition that was held in Bangladesh. The tournament started on 15 September 2017, with eight teams placed into two tiers. ...

, made the highest opening partnership in a domestic first-class match in Bangladesh, scoring 341 runs. He was the leading run-scorer in the

2017–18 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League The 2017–18 Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League was an edition of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, a List A cricket competition held in Bangladesh. It was the fifth edition of the tournament with List A status, although almost 35 s ...

, with 749 runs in 16 matches. In October 2018, he was named in the squad for the

Khulna Titans Khulna Tigers () is a franchise Twenty20 cricket team representing the Khulna division in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), a Twenty20 cricket tournament. The franchise was owned by Gemcon Sports and was founded in 2016 as a replacement for ...

team, following the draft for the

2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League 2019, also known as BPL Season 6 or United Commercial Bank Ltd, UCB BPL 2019 Powered by TVS Motor Company, TVS (for sponsorship reasons), was the sixth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level p ...

. In August 2019, he was one of 35 cricketers named in a training camp ahead of Bangladesh's 2019–20 season. In November 2019, he was selected to play for the

Khulna Tigers Khulna Tigers () is a franchise Twenty20 cricket team representing the Khulna division in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), a Twenty20 cricket tournament. The franchise was owned by Gemcon Sports and was founded in 2016 as a replacement for th ...

in the

2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League 2019–20, also known as BPL Season 7 or Bangabandhu BPL Presented by AKASH DTH and Powered by TVS (for sponsorship reasons), was the seventh season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level profession ...

. On 8 December 2020, in the

2020–21 Bangabandhu T20 Cup The 2020–21 Bangabandhu T20 Cup () was a Twenty20 cricket competition that was held in Bangladesh. It was played by five teams, during November and December 2020. In November 2020, more than 100 players began to undertake fitness tests, ahead ...

, Najmul scored a century for Minister Group Rajshahi against Fortune Barishal. In November 2022, he was selected to play for Sylhet Strikers, following the players' draft for the 2022–23 Bangladesh Premier League. He became the first Bangladeshi player to score more than 500 runs in a BPL season. He went on to win the player of the tournament award for his performance.

International career

In November 2016, he was named in a 22-man preparatory squad to train in Australia, ahead of Bangladesh's tour to New Zealand. In January 2017 he was added to Bangladesh's

squad ahead of the second Test against New Zealand. He made his Test debut in the second Test against New Zealand on 20 January 2017. In August 2018, he was one of the twelve debutants to be selected for a 31-man preliminary squad for Bangladesh ahead of the

2018 Asia Cup The 2018 Asia Cup (also known as Unimoni Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that was held in the United Arab Emirates in September 2018. It was the 14th edition of the Asia Cup and the third t ...

. He made his

(ODI) debut for Bangladesh against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

on 20 September 2018. In December 2018, he was named in Bangladesh's team for the

2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the third edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Karachi, Pakistan and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Eight teams participated in the tournament including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations and ...

. After being dropped from the team since

, he was again recalled for the

2019–20 Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series The 2019–20 Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series was a cricket tournament that took place in September 2019. It was a tri-nation series featuring Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe with all the matches played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). Zimb ...

. He made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut for Bangladesh, against

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, on 18 September 2019. In November 2019, he was named as the captain of Bangladesh's squad for the

2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the fourth edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Bangladesh between 14 and 23 November 2019. Eight teams participated in the tournament, including five under-23 age level teams of Test cricket ...

in Bangladesh. Later the same month, he was named as the captain of Bangladesh's squad for the men's cricket tournament at the

2019 South Asian Games The 2019 South Asian Games, officially the XIII South Asian Games, was a major multi-sport event which was originally slated to be held from 9 to 18 March 2019 in Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. However, the dates were postponed and the event was ...

. The Bangladesh team went on to win the gold medal, after they beat Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the final. In April 2021, in the opening match of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, he scored his first century in Test cricket, with 163 runs in the first innings. In July 2021, Shanto scored his second Test hundred against Zimbabwe in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

. In September 2022, Shanto was named in Bangladesh's squad for the

2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the eighth edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20. It was played in Australia from 16 October to 13 November 2022. In the final, England cricket team, England beat Pakist ...

. On 30 October 2022, in the match against Zimbabwe, Shanto scored his maiden half-century in T20I cricket. His score of 71 runs off 55 balls helped Bangladesh to win the match by 3 runs. He was the highest run-scorer for Bangladesh in that tournament hitting 180 runs, including another fifty against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In March 2023, he was named in Bangladesh's T20I and ODI squad for their series against England. On 1 March 2023, in the second ODI, he claimed his maiden half-century in ODI cricket. He continued his good form scoring 51 runs off just 30 balls in the first T20I, helping Bangladesh to win the match by 6 wickets and clinch their first T20I win against England. In the one-off Test against Afghanistan in June 2023, Shanto became the second Bangladeshi to score two centuries in a Test, scoring 146 and 124 runs respectively. In December 2023, he scored his 5th hundred of the test career which came against New Zealand in the first test of the 3-match series. Bangladesh went on to win that match by 150 runs. In May 2024, he was named as a captain in Bangladesh's squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament.

Captaincy

In February 2024, Shanto was named captain of the Bangladesh cricket team for all formats by the selection committee. In March 2024, Shanto scored 122* runs not out against Sri Lanka in the first match of a 3-game ODI series. This is the highest score by a Bangladeshi captain in men's ODIs.

International centuries

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shanto, Najmul Hossain 1998 births Living people Bangladeshi cricketers Bangladesh Test cricketers Bangladesh One Day International cricketers Bangladesh Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Bangladeshi sportsmen People from Rajshahi District Abahani Limited cricketers Kala Bagan Cricket Academy cricketers Bangladesh North Zone cricketers Rajshahi Division cricketers Comilla Victorians cricketers Khulna Tigers cricketers South Asian Games gold medalists for Bangladesh South Asian Games medalists in cricket Medalists at the 2019 South Asian Games Cricketers from Rajshahi Division Bangladesh One Day cricket captains Bangladesh Test cricket captains Cricketers at the 2023 Cricket World Cup Fortune Barishal cricketers