Will Mahmudullah seal T20 World Cup berth?

 
With the T20 World Cup on cards which will be played in Australia in October-November, the national cricketers along with a number of outside players holding their training in full swing under the supervision of technical consultant Sridharan Sriram at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

Tigers' 3-day special training camp began on Monday ahead of upcoming tri-nation series and T20 World Cup. However, the second day training was washedout due to incessant rain on Tuesday. Therefore, BCB is now planning to hold the special camp in Singapore or UAE.

As per the time set by ICC, the World Cup squad has to be announced by September 15. The selectors are expected to announce the 15-member squad on September 15 just after the BCB president Nazmul Hassan gives his approval. Veteran Mahmudullah Riyad's form however is one of the most talked about topics in the cricket fraternity in the last few months.

The veteran middle-order batter who led Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup in the previous edition last year, is going through a lean patch in shorter format. Never before have we seen Mahmudullah struggling like this in T20 cricket.

The upcoming ICC T20 world cup 2022 is just few days from now. The selectors and team management are already divided over their opinion on whether Mahmudullah should be included in the squad, which will fly to Australia, or he should be dropped.

Stalwart Mahmudullah Riyad made 52 runs at a 106.12 strike rate in the Asia Cup, having made just 99 runs in six T20s earlier this year.

According to sources, all three selectors as well as Sridharan Sriram don't agree to include Mahmudullah in the squad while T20 captain Shakib Al Hasan wants Mahmudullah in World Cup squad considering his experience. 

However Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan Papon himself don't know whether Mahmudullah will make it into Bangladesh's T20 World Cup team but the BCB boss on Tuesday insisted that they want to give the experienced batter a perfect send-off.

"If he has to retire (T20 cricket) or if we can't give him a chance in the squad, then he should at least given a chance (to retire from the field). He should be respected. Because there is no opportunity to underestimate the contribution of Mahmudullah Riyad. He helped us to win many matches," BCB chief said.

Earlier, on Monday after the first day camp, team director Khaled Mahmud said it's too early to make any decision over Mahmudullah's. He added that they can't say no to an experienced player like Mahmudullah all of a sudden "(Mahmudullah) Riyad is an important part of our white-ball cricket. There has been no decision on him. We will take a decision when we sit down to do the team, whether we need him in the squad or not. I can say that Riyad is still important for us. It is good to have discussions on whether Riyad will get the chance or not. We also can't say that Riyad isn't an automatic choice. We have to take everything into consideration." Khaled Mahmud said.

Batting has been a major concern for the Bangladesh team in T20 cricket since last year's World Cup and therefore the team management's headache would be to create new options to plug the loopholes ahead of the World Cup in this format in Australia. Most of the Bangladeshi batsmen have been facing the low patch.  The 36-year-old Mahmuduullah as well in the throes of a low patch in the T20Is but he is Bangladesh's most capped T20I player and one of the most important players as well in the current Bangladesh cricket team. He is not the T20 captain anymore, but his experience will play a massive role in Australia. He struck back-to-back hundred in 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and it will not be a surprise call if his previous bright experience in Australia could go in favour of him in the T20 World Cup.

"Riyad has been our match-winner. He made centuries in the 2015 World Cup. He had a big partnership with Shakib Al Hasan in the 2017 Champions Trophy. He has won matches single-handedly too. We can't say no to him all of a sudden, but the team is bigger than the individual. We have called up a lot of players to the camp, but not all are called up for selection." Khaled Mahmud said.

Bangladesh veteran Mushfiqur Rahim took to social media to announce his retirement from T20I cricket shortly after the Asia Cup.