Bangladesh senior player Mahmudullah Riyad is ready to be the captain of the side if he is offered to take the role.
Regular captain Shakib Al Hasan had already expressed his reluctance of not taking the responsibility of the captaincy.
Bangladesh will need a new skipper if Shakib decides to step down as the leader of Tigers in the Test format and Mahmudullah can call himself as a front runner for the position considering he had led the side in absence of Shakib on quite a few occasions.
“It’s not a challenge rather the responsibility [to lead the side] is an honor. I should not comment on what’s going on in someone’s mind,” Mahmudullah said here after the Tri-nation T20 series final between Bangladesh and Afghanistan was washed out due to rain.
“But if there is a chance [to lead the side] than why not,” he said. Though Bangladesh shared the Tri-nation T20 series trophy and won three matches in the group including snapping four-match losing streak to Afghanistan, they can’t quite call it a successful campaign.
The Tigers lost the one-off Test to Afghanistan by a huge 224-run margin, which exposed their shortcomings in the longer version format. Moreover in Tri-nation T20 series, in which Zimbabwe was also a part, Bangladesh’s players could not show any noteworthy performance.
Again the seniors like Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah took the responsibility to take the side home. The performance of youngster like Afif Hossain and leg-spinner Aminul Islam Biplob came as a fresh breath of air.
However, the Tigers were looking forward to win again and clinch the trophy so that they may get a boost from their current dilapidated situation before they travel to India in November.
Bangladesh will take on India in two-match Test series with which they will begin the journey of ICC Test Championship. In addition they will also play a three-match T20 series against India.
“I personally believe we have played good cricket in T20I series
[winning three in four matches played]. There are departments that we need to
work on and our coach [Russell Domingo] already spoke about it to the media
[on Tuesday]. Hopefully we will be able to work on it in before going into
the next series,” said Mahmudullah
“In most of the matches we lost early wickets which are not the ideal position to be in a T20 match. We spoke of these things as a group. As players we need to be responsible to have improvement in the concerned areas. We have to have sharp decision making. Against India we need to play our top game otherwise it will be difficult for us to beat them,” he said.
