Bangladesh veteran all-rounder, Mahmudullah, has decided to retire from the shortest format of the game after the conclusion of the ongoing T20I series against India. The decision was announced by the 38-year-old himself during a press conference in Delhi.
“I am retiring from T20I cricket after the last game of this series. I was pre-decided before coming here,” Bangladesh batter said.
“I had a chat with my family. I spoke to the coach (Chandika Hathurusinghe), captain (Najmul Hossain Shanto), chief selector (Gazi Ashraf Hossain), and the board president (Faruque Ahmed) as well. I think it is the right time to move on from this format for me and the team. Especially with the World Cup coming up in less than two years. I will concentrate on the one-day game.”
The right-handed batter has played 139 T20I matches so far in his career and the two remaining games of the Indian tour will make his games tally reach up to 141, which will in turn see him share the third-highest caps spot with Ireland’s George Dockrell. Mahmudullah’s form as a batter in T20Is has been on a downward spiral for a few years now. For one, he plays as a finisher; a role that demands a whole spectrum of skills. In his own words, the position he had to bat at was nothing short of ‘tricky’.
“Back in 2016, there was a T20 World Cup in India. Before that, we had a training camp in Khulna. I changed my batting approach from that camp,” Mahmudullah said.
“I had to bat at No. 6 or 7, so I decided to change my approach and style. It was the team’s finisher role. It was a very tricky place to bat. Not always you could finish the game. People would usually highlight the ones you didn’t finish, rather than the ones you were there for. But it is part and parcel of this game.”
The Bangladesh all-rounder believes, though, that there are plenty in the team who can fulfill the finisher’s role pretty satisfactorily, should they play bravely and with the Coach and captain’s support.
“Jaker Ali, Shamim (Hossain), Afif (Hossin) and Yasir Ali can be good choices at No. 6 or 7. It is not easy to bat there in T20Is. You have to be brave. You can’t think about failure. You have to go out there, and hit the ball as hard as you can. Coach and captain has to back the batter in that position.”
His growing lean patch was the reason why he had to sit out T20I games for two years straight. Having already retired from Test cricket, during this time he was only playing One-day Internationals, a format which does not enjoy the same attention it did a few years ago. This did not help his case either. However, thanks to a decent Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) season for Fortune Barishal, he was granted a return to the national side. His return only saw him add a couple more half-centuries to his kitty before he fell prey to the same batting woes again. He will appear in his last T20I on 12th October in Hyderabad.
