Mushfiqur Rahim - National Captain

National Captain

On 20 September 2011, Rahim was named Bangladesh captain, taking over from Shakib Al Hasan after a disappointing tour of Zimbabwe. The announcement was made midway through the BCB Cup, a tournament involving the senior Bangladesh team, Bangladesh A, and a side made up of academy players. Rahim had already been captaining Bangladesh in the tournament on a temporary basis. The competition was won by Bangladesh A.

Bangladesh's next international engagement was hosting the West Indies in October for a T20I, three ODIs, and two Tests. In his first international match as captain, Rahim produced a Man-of-the-Match performance, scoring 41 not out from 26 balls to help his team to victory with one delivery to spare in the only T20I. Bangladesh lost the ODI series 2–1 and Rahim was his team's leading run-scorer with 100, including an innings of 69. The following month, Pakistan toured for three ODIs and two Tests. Bangladesh lost the ODI series 3–0, and Rahim managed just 12 runs from three innings.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board founded the six-team Bangladesh Premier League in 2012, a twenty20 tournament to be held in February that year. The BCB made Mushfiq the 'icon player' for Duronto Rajshahi. Under his leadership Duronto overcame a weak start to progress to the semi-finals where they lost to Barisal Burners; Rahim contributed 234 runs from 11 matches. In the 2012 Asia Cup, under Rahim's captaincy, Bangladesh won two out of the three games they have played and reached the final for the first time where they lost to Pakistan in the final. In April his grade A+ central contract was renewed.