Mahmudullah receives ‘guard of honor’ in his last Test
Collected
|| CF DESK ||
On the third day of the ongoing Test against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, there was a rumor that middle-order batsman and off-spinner Mahmudullah Riyad was contemplating retirement from the longest format of the game.
Bangladesh cricketers formed a line on the final day of the match and gave a guard of honor as Mahmudullah stepped onto the pitch. The event was confirmed by the live broadcast commentators.
However, neither the Bangladesh Cricket Board [BCB] nor Mahmudullah have made a formal proclamation on the occasion.
Before the Zimbabwe Test, Mahmudullah played his final match at Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in January 2020, and was consequently left out of the series against Zimbabwe last year, as well as the West Indies and Sri Lanka this year. In 2020, he was one of just a few cricketers to be handed a white-ball-only core contract.
The Bangladesh selection panel included Mahmudullah, three days after declaration of the initial team for the Zimbabwe game, as back-up to the injured opener Tamim Iqbal and middle-order batsman Mushfiqur Rahim.
He returned to Test cricket after a long 16 months. In the first innings of this Test, he played a brilliant unbeaten innings of 150 runs from 278 balls.
During a shaky situation, he and Taskin Ahmed made the second-highest 9th wicket partnership of 191 runs, which helped Bangladesh to put a huge total of 468 runs in the first innings.
In red-ball cricket, Mahmudullah has played 50 Tests and scored 2,914 runs with the bat. He has scored 5 centuries and 16 half-centuries in his Test career.
Mahmudullah has also played an effective role for Bangladesh with the ball. He has taken 43 wickets with right-arm off-spin. His career-best bowling figures were 5 for 51.
Mahmudullah made his Test debut in 2009 against West Indies. He scored 9 and 8 runs with the bat in that match, although he took 3 and 5 wickets in two innings and played a big role to clinch victory for Bangladesh by 95 runs.
