Mahmudullah Riyad did not go to Zimbabwe with the T20 jersey as usual because he is not in the T20 squad. He may have to wear someone else’s jersey in the last T20 on Tuesday. Team director Khaled Mahmud Sujan said that such a decision had to be taken outside of the plan.
Despite defeating Zimbabwe by 7 wickets in the second T20 on Sunday, Bangladesh suffered a setback due to the injury of captain Nurul Hasan Sohan. He was sidelined for three weeks with a sprained finger.
Instead of Sohan, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat was made the captain of the final match of the series on Tuesday. Although there is some surprise with this decision, the surprise is surpassed by another decision. Sohan was replaced by Mahmudullah who was recently retired and was not considered for the series.
BCB decided the new captain and the T20 team for the tour of Zimbabwe on July 22. Then team director Khaled Mahmud and head of cricket management department Jalal Yunus said that they are going to walk the path of building a new model team. That is why Mahmudullah and Mushkiq have been rested.
Why did you have to withdraw from that thought after two matches? When asked, Khaled Mahmud told The Daily Star that they took this decision because there was no middle order backup, “Actually, we came to Zimbabwe with five openers. While this squad has opener backup, middle order backup is unfortunately lacking. Therefore, I am playing by requesting Mahmudullah who is in the ODI squad without seeing any other way.”
The batsmen who can open the T20 squad for the tour of Zimbabwe include Munim Shahriar, Liton Das, Parvez Hossain Imon, Anamul Haque Bijay and Nazmul Hossain Shanto. Sohan played six in two matches against Zimbabwe. Mehdi Hasan Miraj could be the backup in the announced squad at this point. But the team management finally chose Mahmudullah.
Mahmudullah will now play only as an ordinary player even though he has been brought back into the team. Khaled Mahmud said that he is no longer considered by the leadership.
