Stats: Why Shakib Al Hasan is a one-of-a-kind Test cricketer

On this day 16 years ago, a lean and thin Shakib Al Hasan (then spelled Saqibul Hasan) made his Test debut as a 20-year-old against India. He started off slow in Tests, getting his first fifty in 13th innings and after six Tests, his bowling average was 104 and strike-rate 218. But in a career of more than a decade and a half, Shakib has established himself as one of the finest all-rounders across formats. 

Test is undoubtedly Bangladesh's weakest format. Not playing in this format as frequently as the two others could be one of the reasons behind that but Shakib has bossed it like no other for Bangladesh, both with the bat and the ball. He is comfortably the team's all-time leading wicket-taker in Tests with 233 wickets at 31.06 and the third-highest run-getter with 4454 runs at an average higher than all of his compatriots - 39.07.

Including Shakib, 81 players have 200 or more Test wickets. Among them, 21 have 2000 or more runs in this format. And only five of them - Garry Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan, Ravindra Jadeja and Shakib - average in excess of 35 with the bat. 

In the 66 Tests he has played so far, Shakib has contributed to 13.69% of the team's runs and 26.09% of the wickets. That's quite outrageous because no one so far has not quite matched that in this format. 

Only two players bettered Shakib's batting contribution of 13.69% with a 200-wicket cut off - Sobers (15.5%) and Kallis (14.97%) - but the former's contribution is far superior to them when it comes to bowling. Sobers took 15.6% of his team's wickets while Kallis contributed to 10.37% of his team's wickets.

There is a famous SuperSport graphic suggesting that Jacques Kallis was the combination of Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan. For Bangladesh, Shakib is probably the combination of Ricky Ponting and Nathan Lyon. 

Ponting, the second-highest run-getter in Tests, contributed to 13.59% of his team's runs, slightly less than Shakib. Lyon, who is the eight-most prolific Test bowler, has so far taken 23.2% of his team's wickets in the 119 Tests he played. Shakib has a better contribution percentage than him with the ball.

In the 66 Tests featuring him, Shakib has been the team's best bowler and batter. His 4454 runs and 233 wickets are the highest in Tests featuring him. With a 200-wicket cut off, this feat has been matched only by New Zealand's Chris Cairns who was the highest run-getter and wicket-taker in the 62 Tests he played. Shakib, though, has a superior batting average. 

Shakib has a pretty good record in Tests away from home as well. He averages 37.2 overseas with the bat (40.1 at home) and 31.7 with the ball (30.7 at home). He is one of only four bowlers to have taken five-wicket hauls against nine or more Test playing nations. 

But it's a shame that he has played only 66 matches in those 16 years. He has never played 10 Tests in a calendar year. West Indies is the only country where he has played more than five Tests apart from Bangladesh. Despite all these, Bangladesh's Test captain has managed to achieve incredible things in cricket's most sophisticated format.