“He had not informed us about leaving captaincy before the World Cup. We believed that [the interview] was not an official thing,” Jalal Yunus, the BCB’s cricket operations chairman, said.
He had first returned home to Dhaka a day after Bangladesh played Pakistan in Kolkata on October 31, before doing the same after the Sri Lanka game in Delhi on November 6. Litton was back in Pune, the venue of Bangladesh’s match against Australia, only three days later.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the general view among influential BCB directors is that Litton lost focus during the World Cup, although he was given both breaks on “humanitarian” grounds.
That potentially leaves Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mehidy Hasan Miraz as captaincy candidates. Shanto, who had led Bangladesh when Shakib had missed their World Cup game against India due to a quad injury, is also set to stand-in as captain for their final match against Australia, to be played on November 11.
As for Shakib’s future in both Tests and ODIs, the BCB will be discussing it with him soon. Ahead of the World Cup, the comments on the ODI captaincy aside, he had even outlined his retirement plans, saying he would announce his retirement “after the 2025 Champions Trophy”.
Thus, with Shakib and Tamim potentially absent against New Zealand, it would leave Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque as the only experienced batters, despite the BCB wanting to play a full-strength squad. The bowling unit’s availability will largely depend on their fitness updates after the World Cup.