After a career-best performance of 150* against Zimbabwe in the ongoing Test, Mahmudullah informed his teammate that he is not willing to play Test cricket any more, which came as a shock for everyone.
On Friday, Bangladesh all-rounder, Mahmudullah has announced to his teammates that he is retiring from test cricket. He informed his teammates a day after registering a career-best score of unbeaten 150 against Zimbabwe.
He has announced the end of the third day play of the underway one-off test against Zimbabwe.
His sudden decision will negatively affect the team and will not go well for Bangladesh cricket, BCB President said.
He had returned to Test cricket after 18 months. BCB president, Nazmul Hasan Papon added that his decision was “unusual” since the match isn’t over yet.
“Yes, he (Mahmudullah) had informed that he does not want to prolong his Test career after this game. But he didn’t inform us anything officially and we have to see whether it’s an emotional outburst or not,”
quoted by a BCB official.
He has not even announced his retirement to any of his social media platforms. He was added at the last moment to the Bangladesh squad.
He is featuring in his 50th match and made it memorable after scoring his fifth test century.
At Dhaka premier league, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim were injured, and following their injury, Mahmudullah was selected as a replacement in the squad against Zimbabwe.
Before including the squad against Zimbabwe, he played his last Test match against Pakistan, 18 months before.
“Before they left for Zimbabwe, We asked all players to inform us which formats they want to play and Mahmudullah also agreed to play all three formats. Regarding the test, he wrote that he wants to play in the format if given the opportunity,”
said Nazmul Hasan.
“I call him twice at my house and asked him and he confirmed to me that he wanted to play tests. I asked him, Will u bowl if necessary? He said he would do that too. He’s talking about retirement now, that’s why I’m absolutely surprised,”
he added.
“I think he may have said it emotionally. Otherwise, he is not supposed to say so in the middle of the test match after writing to the board,”
Hasan said.
“If he did it in the middle of the test, it would put a very negative impact on the players and that is unacceptable. We have no problem if anyone doesn’t want to play, but it doesn’t make sense to create chaos by saying this in the middle of the series,”
he concluded.
“Am I fit to play test? I asked myself several times after getting out against Pakistan in such an ugly manner. I wanted to find the answer while I wanted to answer as well. I found the answer in Harare. I know I am perfect for the test but I won’t play in this format anymore,”
quoted imago Sports Management on Mahudullah’s decision, a company who is managing him for years.