NEW DELHI, OCT 8
Mahmudullah will retire from T20Is at the of Bangladesh’s ongoing bilateral series in India. He made the announcement on Tuesday, at a press conference on the eve of the second game in Delhi. Mahmudullah, 38, said that he had informed the relevant people in Bangladesh cricket about his decision, and will continue playing ODIs. “I am retiring from T20I cricket after the last game of this series. I was pre-decided before coming here,” Mahmudullah said. “I had a chat with my family. I spoke to the coach [Chandika Hathurusinghe], captain [Najmul Hossain Shanto], chief selector [Gazi Ashraf Hossain] and the board president [Faruque Ahmed] as well. I think it is the right time to move on from this format for me and the team. Especially with the World Cup coming up in less than two years. I will concentrate on the one-day game.”
Three years ago, Mahmudullah had retired from Tests during a game against Zimbabwe. His white-ball career went off the rails somewhat when he was dropped for two years from the T20I side, missing 27 matches between 2022 and 2023. He returned in T20Is with a 54 against Sri Lanka earlier this year, but had an ordinary campaign at the T20 World Cup, before falling for 1 in the first T20I against India in Gwalior.
A former captain in the format, Mahmudullah will retire as the join third-most-capped T20I player in history. He has played 139 matches and two more matches will take him level with George Dockrell at 141. He is also Bangladesh’s second-highest run-scorer in the format, only behind Shakib Al Hasan. Mahmudullah has also played in the most defeats in this format, and earlier this year he became Bangladesh’s oldest player in T20Is.
Mahmudullah’s T20I career will be remembered for his transformation as a big-hitter almost a decade after his debut. At the start of 2016, Hathurusinghe had given him the role of finisher. He took up the challenge, adding more aerial shots to his repertoire.
“Back in 2016, there was a T20 World Cup in India. Before that, we had a training camp in Khulna. I changed my batting approach from that camp,” Mahmudullah said. “I had to bat at No. 6 or 7, so I decided to change my approach and style. It was the team’s finisher role. It was a very tricky place to bat. Not always you could finish the game. People would usually highlight the ones you didn’t finish, rather than the ones you were there for. But it is part and parcel of this game.”
He raised his strike rate for the following couple of years, culminating in his best T20 knock in 2018. His unbeaten 43 off 18 balls against Sri Lanka took Bangladesh to the Nidahas Trophy final, and it was played with an umpiring controversy around, which led to then captain Shakib nearly calling off the Bangladesh innings. Despite all that – during the last over of an already tense chase – Mahmudullah held his nerve and won the match off the penultimate ball when he whipped Isuru Udana for a six.
