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 Shakib the 'icon player' for Khulna Royal Bengals (KRB). Under his captaincy, Shakib's team progressed to the semi-finals of the competition where they were beaten by Dhaka Gladiators despite Shakib's 86* off 41 balls. In ten matches he scored 280 runs and took 15 wickets, which made him KRB's leading wicket-taker, and was named Man of the Tournament. In the auction of the BPL 2, Shakib was brought by defending champions Dhaka Gladiators for $365,000, the most expensive player in the tournament. He led his team to the title, getting 329 runs and 15 wickets in 12 matches, emerging as the Man of the Tournament for the consecutive second time in the BPL.