Who else than Mahmudullah?

Mahmudullah Riyadh, the Twenty20 captain of the Bangladesh cricket team is at the receiving end of constant criticism for his poor performance and demoralizing leadership but the Bangladesh Cricket Board officials are not looking for an immediate change.

The BCB is not considering a change in leadership at this moment but the president, Nazmul Hasan, said that he will talk to Mahmudullah after the team returns from Guyana,

“We must seat to discuss; the captain will come and then we will discuss. It will take the remaining days of July to reach a decision”, Nazmul told the media.

If the BCB decides to replace Mahmudullah, they don’t have many options at hand as Bangladesh is constantly doing poor results in the T20 format.

Before the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia where Bangladesh will begin their campaign on October 24 at Bellerive Oval, Hobert.

Before the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh will have three T20 outings; a three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, Asia Cup, and the tri-series in New Zealand involving Pakistan and the hosts.

If BCB wants to go with a new captain, they must employ him soon so that he does not find himself uncomfortable in the marquee event.

The best option is to hand over the captaincy to Shakib Al Hasan, who recently agreed to take the mantle from Mominul Haque in Test cricket.

Shakib is the most experienced cricketer for Bangladesh in T20 as he has played 99 T2OI matches and 367 T20 matches across various franchise leagues in the world.

He also led Bangladesh in T20I earlier, under his captaincy the Tigers have played 21 matches and won seven.

But Shakib is not available in the Zimbabwe series as he will be playing for Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League during that time.

If BCB does not want to burden Shakib with the captaincy of another format, they might opt for Liton Kumar Das, who is now the vice-captain of the Test team.

Liton led Bangladesh in a T20I match against New Zealand in 2021, he was out for a duck in that match and the Tigers lost the match by 65 runs in a 10-over game.

George Bailey, the present chief selector of Australia was made captain of the Australian T20 team in his debut match. If BCB is not looking for such a daredevil option, they might opt for some young cricketer like Mehidy Hasan Miraz or Afif Hossain who led their sides in domestic franchise-based T20 tournaments.

Shakib could be the best option as the new captain but there will always be questions regarding his availability as his other interests are growing significantly.