Bangladesh all-rounder Mahmudullah has been asked to rethink over his future with Test cricket. It is understood that the suggestion has come to the cricketer from the national team management backed by influence from the Bangladesh Cricket Board [BCB].
Based on his inconsistency in longer version cricket, Bangladesh T20I captain Mahmudullah has been asked to focus on limited-over formats of the game. This had come immediately after Bangladesh’s defeat to hosts Pakistan earlier this week. Bangladesh suffered yet another humiliating defeat in Test, this time by an innings and 44 runs at Rawalpindi.
Dhaka Tribune understands the national selection panel is in wide discussion over inclusion of Mahmudullah in Bangladesh’s next Test, at home against Zimbabwe later this month. The thought of having Mahmudullah only for the limited over games was strongly driven following the middle order batsman’s low key performance in the just concluded Test against Pakistan.
Despite another batting disaster of the team, Mahmudullah’s 25 in the first innings and a golden duck in the second innings had caught attention of the policy makers of cricket of the country. This was more for the fashion the 34-year-old got himself dismissed in the second innings and become hat-trick wicket of 16-year-old Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah.
Having lost Najmul Hossain Shanto and night watchman Taijul Islam in the two previous deliveries to Shah, Mahdullah took the strike as the new batsman but only for a brief moment as he awkwardly managed to get a thick edge to the ball travelling wide from the off stumps.
“We have asked the coach to talk with him about his future in the longer-version cricket and he had spoken with him,’’ said a member of the selection panel on anonymity.
Mahmudullah since his debut in Test 2009 has played 49 Test for Bangladesh and has 2764 runs under his belt with four centuries, of which three have come in 2018-19, and 16 half centuries. In his last 10 innings in the format, Mahmudullah has scored only one half century, an innings of 67 against New Zealand at Wellington in March 2019.