Agency :
Bangladesh Test and T20I captain Shakib Al Hasan ruled out from any field action for next three months on account of finger injury. Like before, middle order batsman Mahmudullah Riyad might come out as the replacement of Shakib.
In the forthcoming months, Bangladesh will feature in two home series, one against West Indies and the other against Zimbabwe. Although BCB is yet to decide who would lead the side in absence of Shakib – it is highly likely that Mahmudullah Riyad will be handed over the responsibility. On Saturday, while conversing with the audience in ‘Sports Hub – Bangladesh’ in association with daily Prothom Alo, Mahmudullah nodded in positive saying he always enjoys the role of a leader. “I always like captaincy. It is a challenging and respectable task. I’m eager to take the challenge if opportunity would come up,” he said. With that, Bangladesh crisis man hopes he will regain his fitness on time before starting the upcoming series. “Troubles of injuries would remain there. We have to play with these. I know persistent playing has worsen the condition – the pain has moved towards my chest. I’m bit well now resting for few days. Hope I will make the come back on time,” he said.
Hurting his back during the West Indies’ tour last July, Mahmudullah carried the pain during his play in CPL and the last completed Asia Cup.
Mahmudullah Riyad also echoed with the perception of ‘mental blockade’ said the other day by Khaled Mahmud about losing close clashes in vital encounters.
“We lost a lot of matches against India in recent times. We always tried. Perhaps there were some mental blockades, I’m not sure about that but we are really trying to find out what’s wrong inside. We have some quality cricketers to finish things positively; we would try to give more effort as a team,” Mahmudullah said.
