Mahmudullah’s retirement from Twenty20 internationals brings to an end an era for Bangladesh as all five senior players, considered the Tigers’ “fantastic five”, have now said goodbye to the shortest format of the game.
Previously, Mushfiqur Rahim (102 games), Tamim Iqbal (74) and Mashrafe bin Mortaza (54) bid farewell to international 20-over cricket, while Shakib al Hasan (129) said he has already played his last T20I during the T20 World Cup 2024 held in June in the West Indies and USA.
So Mahmudullah’s final T20I in Hyderabad against hosts India Saturday will end a cycle for Bangladesh cricket in the 20-over format.
The 38-year old has played the highest number of T20Is for Bangladesh as he will feature in his 141st game Saturday; star all-rounder Shakib is second in the list with 129.
Mahmudullah has scored 2,436 runs from 129 innings among those 140 games with 23.65 average, 117.51 strike rate and eight fifties.
Such stats in T20Is, particularly in the power-hitting era, are out of place in the international level, but considering Bangladesh’s standing and performances in T20Is in the last two decades, he was perhaps the best the Tigers have had in this format.
In One Day Internationals, he was slotted in No 6 or 7 position in the batting order, and entrusted with the responsibility of finishing the game or scoring quick runs in death overs.
In T20Is he also batted a little lower, coming out to bat in fifth position in 51 innings, sixth in 48 and seventh in 18.
Perhaps if he had batted a bit higher, Mahmudullah’s career stats could have made for better reading as he has all the shots in his repertoire when he gets well-set.
Among Mahmudullah’s T20I career highlights, two games stand out from the rest.
One is against India in the T20 World Cup 2016 in Bengaluru where Mahmudullah and Mushfiq were at crease as Bangladesh failed to score two runs from three remaining delivering losing both their wickets, and the other is his match-winning knock (43* off 18) against hosts Sri Lanka in a hot-tempered clash in Nidahas Trophy 2018.
The results were contrasting for him in these two games but he admitted both the innings were defining moments of his 20-over career.
“My biggest disappointment was the match against India in Bengaluru in 2016. Most probably it can also be called a life-changing moment for me. That innings served as a lesson to me. Best moment is perhaps Nidahas Trophy. The one where we won,” Mahmudullah said to the media in Delhi prior to the second T20I and during his retirement announcement.
Mahmudullah also led Bangladesh in 43 T20Is, which is the highest with Shakib again second in the list with 39.
Both Mahmudullah and Shakib won 16 games in T20Is as captain but Shakib has a slightly better win-loss ratio (0.69) than Mahmudullah (0.61).
After a disastrous T20 World Cup 2021 campaign in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Mahmudullah was dropped from the T20I team and also given rest from ODIs.
Many people thought that was the end of Mahmudullah as he was 35-36 years old when omitted from the white-ball squads.
But he worked on maintaining his fitness, practiced hard and kept the process right for getting back to the team and was eventually called back to the national team.
It set an example for young cricketers, or for that matter any player, on how to keep focus and maintain the hard-working process when tough times or setbacks arrive in career.
“I have no sorrows, absolutely none at all. Playing a long time for Bangladesh is personally a huge thing for me. After my debut in 2007 I have played till 2024, 17 years. Whatever amount of T20Is I have played I don’t know if I have done well or not. But I have given it my all,” said Mahmudullah during his retirement announcement.
He was not the best striker or the cleanest hitter of the ball in the world of 20-over cricket, but for Bangladesh, he was definitely one of the brightest stars in the last 17 years in T20Is.
