Mahmudullah, a senior Bangladesh all-rounder, has announced his retirement from Test cricket, only a day after scoring a career-best 150 in the current one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Harare. According to Cricbuzz, Mahmudullah informed his colleagues that he is no longer interested in continuing his Test career, which surprised the team management.
“Yes, he (Mahmudullah) had informed that he does not want to prolong his Test career after this game. But he did not inform us anything officially and we have to see whether it’s an emotional outburst or not,” Cricbuzz quoted a top Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official as saying.
Mahmudullah has scored 2764 runs at an average of over 31 in 49 Tests, including four centuries. 35-year-old Mahmudullah made his Test debut against the West Indies in 2009, kicking off his career in the traditional format with a bang.
He failed to score runs with the bat, but he bowled the best bowling figures for a Bangladeshi on debut, taking 8 wickets in the match, including a five-for in the second innings, to help Bangladesh win for the first time abroad. Then in the longest format, he thrived with the bat, scoring more than fifty runs in five consecutive games, including his maiden Test century against New Zealand at Hamilton while batting at number eight.
Mahmudullah, the current captain of Bangladesh’s national T20 team, was the top batsman in the 2015 World Cup. His century eliminated England from the tournament, and he followed it up with another century, this time an unbeaten 128 against co-hosts New Zealand, although in a losing cause.
