Mahmudullah's international career would appear to have hit a dead end. What was once a murmur is now a resonant noise following his omission from the Asia Cup squad. It is highly likely that the same squad will be retained for the World Cup too.
The 50-over format remained the last chance for Mahmudullah to add to his 389 international caps after he retired from Test cricket and later lost his place from the T20I squad owing to poor performanes and results as captain. Losing the T20I captaincy was an indication that his days were numbered in the shortest format despite selectors recalling the veteran for the third T20 against Zimbabwe after the tourist were hit by injuries.
But Mahmudullah's T20 career did not progress further as he was out of the T20 set-up following the Asia Cup in 2022 as Bangladesh opted for a young core for the T20 World Cup under the leadership of Shakib al Hasan. The veteran batter, who was excluded from the ODI squad picked for the three-match ODI series against Ireland in March, could not regain his spot in the following away ODI assignment against Ireland and the home series against Afghanistan.
However, the 37-year old was seen sweating out in the recent conditioning camp to show that his fitness was not an issue given it had been a major bone of contention for the team management whenever his name was tabled up in the selection meeting.
Mahmudullah scored 17.6 in Yo-Yo test but even that wasn't enough to impress the selection panel, who overlooked him for the Asia Cup. BCB's selection panel, however, did come under severe criticism for their decision.
Khaled Mahmud, former team director of Bangladesh, on Tuesday (August 15) insisted that he didn't think it was over for Mahmudullah or that the selection panel was out to prove a point to him as has been pointed out.
"Do you feel Nanno, Bashar and Razzak [members of the national selection panel] are enemies of Mahmudullah? Razzak and Riyad (Mahmudullah) played in the same team so these are all bullsh*t," Mahmud said. "Perhaps they have a planning and I cannot ask Hathurusingha [Bangladesh head coach] why he was not picked.
"I want to say... Why World Cup is the end of Riyad? Because World Cup ends in October and there will be lot of cricket after that. If he earns 17.6 in Yo-Yo test in that case he can prepare and try for another year," he said.
"No matter whether it is T20 or ODI World Cup whenever a player doesn't get chance you say it is over for him. Riyad doesn't do anything else and this [cricket is his profession]. I feel he will play domestic cricket. I was out for 10 times in my career and made a comeback 10 times so there is no point making an issue out of it," he said.
