CRICKETERS from Bangladesh

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Bangladeshi Cricketers of all time. This list of famous Bangladeshi Cricketers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Shakib Al Hasan (1987 - )

With an HPI of 26.41, Shakib Al Hasan is the most famous Bangladeshi Cricketer.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Khondaker Sakib Al-Hassan (Shakib Al Hasan; Bengali: খন্দকার সাকিব আল হাসান; born 24 March 1987) is a Bangladeshi cricketer and politician. He is a member of Parliament. He is known for his aggressive left-handed batting style in the middle order and controlled slow left-arm orthodox bowling. He is widely regarded as the greatest Bangladeshi cricketer and one of the greatest all rounders of all time. Shakib Al Hasan made his Test debut in 2007 against India. His breakthrough came in the Test against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2008 where he picked up 7 wickets for 36 runs, the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler at the time. He quickly established himself as one of the team's leading performers. He has scored over 4,000 runs and taken more than 200 wickets in the format. He has also captained the team on their first-ever Test match win over England in 2016. In ODIs, Shakib has been more successful. He has scored over 6,000 runs and taken more than 270 wickets in the format, becoming the fastest and only player in history to achieve the double of 5,000 runs and 250 wickets in ODIs. In the 2012 Asia Cup, Shakib scored 237 runs, including three fifties, and took six wickets. Bangladesh progressed to the tournament's final for the first time, but eventually lost to Pakistan by 2 runs. He is considered one of the most impactful players of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he broke record of maximum runs scored in the group stages of the world cup which was previously held by Sachin Tendulkar and finished as the third-highest run-scorer scoring 606 runs in total at the tournament. In 2006, Shakib made his T-20 debut against Zimbabwe. He has played for various T20 tournaments around the world for many teams, including Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Jamaica Tallawahs and Dhaka Dominators, where he won the Indian Premier League (IPL) twice with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012 and 2014. He also won the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) title 3 times in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with Dhaka Dominators. He was named the player of the tournament in BPL four times in 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2022. He has won 41 man-of-the-match awards, highest for Bangladesh and 16 man-of-the-series awards, 3rd highest, all formats. Between 2009 and 2022, he captained the Bangladesh cricket team in 120 matches across all three formats. Shakib Al Hasan is an integral asset to the Bangladesh cricket team and has been a consistent performer for his country over the years. He is the most controversial figure in Bangladesh, always making it to the top of the news headlines. He was ranked the 90th most famous athlete in the world by ESPN in 2019. He was included in the ICC Men's Team of the Year twice (2009, 2021). As of October 2023, Shakib holds the record for the 2nd most men's T20 International wickets.

2. Mushfiqur Rahim (1987 - )

With an HPI of 21.42, Mushfiqur Rahim is the 2nd most famous Bangladeshi Cricketer.  Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Mushfiqur Rahim (Bengali: মুশফিকুর রহিম; born 9 May 1987) is a Bangladeshi cricketer and the former captain of the Bangladesh national cricket team. He is a right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper in the national team. Mushfiqur started his international career in 2005 against England at the age of 18 years 17 days. He was made to play as a specialist batsman in the first Test match of his career. He thus became the second-youngest, after Sachin Tendulkar, to play Test cricket at Lord's Cricket Stadium. He continued to make consistent contributions down the order with the bat and was more than competent as a keeper for Bangladesh's spin dominated attack. His moment of fame came in 2010 in a Test against India. Where he scored a quickfire century, the quickest by any Bangladeshi to date. He is one of the best run scorers as a wicketkeeper who has 11,000 runs and 400+ dismissals. According to Jamie Siddons, the former coach of Bangladesh, Mushfiqur Rahim's batting is so versatile that he can bat anywhere in the top order, from one to six. He is also rated as one of the consistent performers and one of the few keepers to score 1000+ runs in every format. He is the highest individual scorer for Bangladesh in Test cricket. He is the first and only wicketkeeper-batsman in the history of Test cricket to score two double-hundreds. He is also the first and only Bangladeshi batsman to score three double-hundreds in Tests. Mushfiqur is the only Bangladeshi player to win 150 international matches. In December 2023, he became only the second cricketer in test cricket history after Len Hutton to be given out for obstructing the field, when he physically handled the ball with his gloves during a test match against New Zealand.