Mohammad Kaif hails Shakib Al Hasan as one of the most useful cricketers

New Delhi: Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif on Friday hailed Shakib Al Hasan as one of the most useful players in modern times aftet the Bangladesh all-rounder scored a double hundred during second day's play of the first Test against New Zealand in Wellington.

Soon after Shakib reached his double hundred, Kaif took to Twitter to congratulate the all-rounder. “Wow ,what an innings from @Sah75official. Probably,one of the most useful cricketers in the modern game,” he wrote.

Wow ,what an innings from @Sah75official . Probably,one of the most useful cricketers in the modern game.#NZvsBAN pic.twitter.com/oQogWqdP3I — Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) January 13, 2017

Shakib, 29, and skipper Mushfiqur Rahim stitched a 359-run stand for the fifth wicket as the visitors reached 542/7 at the end of day 2.

In the process, Shakib (217) became the highest individual scorer for Bangladesh. He is also the third Bangladeshi player to score a double hundred in Test, after Rahim (200) against Sri Lanka in March 2013 and Tamim Iqbal (206) against Pakistan in April 2015.

The 359-run stand was also the highest for Bangladesh, and fourth highest for the fifth wicket in Test cricket. Regarded as one of best all-rounders, Shakib has managed to proved his worth time and again. And today's double hundred was not exception, even though it came little late in his career.

He is currently ranked second in the ICC Test and T20I allrounders list, behind India's Ravichandran Ashwin and Australia's Glenn Maxwell respectively. But he is ranked first in the ODI rankings.

In 45 Test, including the ongoing match, Shakib has scored 3146 runs with four hundreds at an average of just under 42. He has also taken 159 wickets, with best figures of seven for 36.

In ODIs, he has scored 4650 runs with six hundreds, and taken 220 wickets with one five-wicket haul. And in T20Is, he has 1159 runs and 67 wickets in 57 matches.