Nurul new T20I captain for Tigers

Nurul Hasan Sohan has been appointed as the skipper of the Bangladesh national team for their upcoming three-match Twenty20 International series against Zimbabwe, the Bangladesh Cricket Board confirmed on Friday.

Mahmudullah Riyad, the regular captain, has been rested according to BCB officials along with Mushfiqur Rahim. Shakib Al Hasan will not play in the series as he is on leave.

While both Mahmudullah and Mushfiq have been excluded from the T20I squad, they will still travel to Zimbabwe as they are part of the One-Day International squad.

Mahmudullah, who has been leading the T20I side since 2019, had been rumoured to be axed from captaincy permanently following a run of poor results. His performances on the field did not do him any favours as he has been going through a rough patch of form.

While many have claimed that Mahmudullah’s reign is over and Shakib would take over T20I captaincy from the Asia Cup later this year, the BCB officials refused to call Mahmudullah’s exclusion permanent.

“For this series, we have given the captaincy to Nurul Hasan Sohan. We have conveyed this message to Mahmudullah today. You can say that a new brand of the team is going to Zimbabwe. This is only for the Zimbabwe series,” BCB Cricket Operations Chairman Jalal Yunus told the media on Friday.

Nurul has established himself as a regular member of the T20I team in recent months, but his leading the side in Zimbabwe only indicates that BCB is thinking of taking away the captaincy from Mahmudullah permanently.

This was evident in the BCB officials’ words as they refused to tag this team as ‘experimental’.

“This is not experimental. We are not really doing well in this format but we are trying to bring some changes,” Jalal said.

“We have had issues with our T20 team. We have been discussing it for the last few days. Because we are not being able to improve in this format.”

Khaled Mahmud, the team director of Bangladesh and also a board director, said that Mahmudullah took the matter positively.

“We are not removing (Mahmudullah) Riyad permanently. Only for this series. We are not saying he won’t come back. Everybody needs a break. We will think about it later,” Mahmud said.

“He thinks it’s very positive. He had a few questions which we answered.”

Nurul will become Bangladesh’s seventh T20I captain after Shahriar Nafees, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mahmudullah, and Liton Das.

In the squad for the T20I series against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh have called up Parvez Hossain Emon, who was previously called up for Bangladesh against Pakistan but is yet to play a match for the Tigers.

The selectors have also called back pacer Hasan Mahmud in both formats after he has recovered from his injuries.

Chief selector Minhajul Abedin said that this series was a chance for them to see some players before the Asia Cup, which will be the official start of their T20 World Cup preparations later this year.

“We are failing to perform consistently in T20Is. We will start our official planning for the World Cup with the Asia Cup. Before that, this series is an opportunity to test some players. Thus we have rested some senior players and have given the opportunity to younger players,” Minhajul said.

The T20I series will start on July 30, with the remaining matches on July 31 and August 2. The ODIs are on August 5, 7, and 10.