Mahmudullah losing ground under his feet

Mahmudullah is losing ground under his feet as the last date for the squad declaration for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup is approaching. The former T20I captain is falling behind for his poor performance as well as negative body language.

After the dismal performance in the T20 World Cup last year, Mahmudullah faced some harsh questions in the press conferences, but he did not step down from his position as captain. Later on, he was stripped from captaincy after a poor show in West Indies and Nurul Hasan was made captain for the Zimbabwe series, where Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim were rested.

But due to the injury of Nurul and Liton, Mahmudullah came back to the T20I team and was also picked for the Asia Cup squad because of the unavailability of those two.

But now, as Liton and Nurul both are fit and Yasir Ali is also a strong contender for the batting position of Mahmudullah, the selectors are in a fix. The experience speaks for Mahmudullah, but his recent performances are very much unfit with the nature of the game.

Mahmudullah last scored a half-century in October 2021 against Papua New Guinea. Since then, he played 16 T20Is, where his highest score is 31*. He often bats at a strike rate of nearly 100, which does not suit the demand of the format and ultimately costs the team.

On Monday’s training, Mahmudullah was not looking convincing against local pacers. While attempting pull shots or sailing it over mid-wicket, which was once his go-to-shot, the 37-year-old struggled to get things right. Apparently, his foot movement and head position were not right during the moment of impact, and he was clearly struggling to hit big shots.

The team management is often loud about new-look and new-start, and Mahmudullah hardly fits the bill, which team director Khaled Mahmud did not disagree with.

“At the end of the day, we will do what is better for the Bangladesh Cricket team. Riyad (Mahmudullah) is still playing this format. We are not differentiating between experienced and inexperienced. Riyadh is important to us. Equally (Yasir) Rabbi is also important,” said the team director.

Mahmud also said that Mahmudullah is failing to deliver match-winning knocks.

“We are not getting the expected performance from Riyad (Mahmudullah). He played some small knocks, 27 off 27, 20 odds from 20 balls. But the team is always bigger than any person. We have called a good number of players, but all are not for selection,” he told the reporters.