|| CF Correspondent ||
Mashrafe Mortaza announced his retirement from T20 three years ago on this 6 April. The right-handed pacer announced this during the toss in the second and final T20I at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Mashrafe told at that time that he will play one-day internationals even after leaving the Twenty20.
In the first match of the series, Bangladesh was trailing 1-0. They had a chance to finish the series with 1-1 margin. The opportunity was well taken by the team led by Mashrafe. Bangladesh won by 45 runs in the last match of that series.
The series ends with 1-1 margin. Mashrafe took a wicket on that day in Colombo by giving away 30 runs in his four last T20i over. The hosts were all out for 131 runs while batting on a target of 177 given by Bangladesh.
There were rumours after such sudden retirement, that then coach of Bangladesh team Chandika Hathurusingha was behind for Mashrafe's such T20 retirement. But recently, he said, the reason for his retirement was not Hathurusingha. Not only that at the same time, the former skipper of Bangladesh named Hathurusingha as his best coach.
Mashrafe represented Bangladesh for ten years in the Twenty20 format. He made his debut against Zimbabwe in this format on November 2006. Has played 54 matches and led the team in a total of 28 matches.
Out of which he had 10 wins. He is also the most successful captain in this format. The captain has a win percentage of 37.03. Bangladesh were runners up in the 2016 T20 Asia Cup, where Mashrafe led the team.
He took 42 wickets in his 54 T20Is. Scored 377 runs in 39 innings. The right-hand veteran pacer, has also took 146 wickets in his 163 T20 matches. Scored 1039 runs with one-half ton.
