Mahmudullah Riyad became the last member of the Big Five of Bangladesh cricket to complete 10 years on the international stage on July 25, 2017. It is strongly believed that this core group comprising Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah has played a big role in transforming a mediocre team into a formidable force in international cricket. And that success story cannot be told without mentioning the name of the 31-year old cricketer from Mymensingh. 

When it comes to Mahmudullah's silky batting, many have likened him to the elegant former India batsman VVS Laxman, but with the combination of the silky-smooth batting and a silent but deadly aggression Mahmudullah has established his own style of batting that suits all formats.

If you want to talk about Bangladesh's great one-day performances, one of the top mentions has to be his wonderful hundred at Adelaide in that fabulous win over England during the 2015 World Cup, which was swiftly followed by another ton against New Zealand. Another mention would have to be his latest hundred against New Zealand during the ICC Champions Trophy in England. When the all-rounder, whose tidy off-spin has also played some part in his journey, looks back upon his decade in international cricket these are the innings that will delight him most, although he has had some smaller but notable contributions during the journey.

Despite the success stories one question always arises about the soft-spoken cricketer's career – has he justified his talent on the international stage? Many see his solitary hundred in 33 Tests and three in 145 ODIs as evidence that his potential has not been truly fulfilled and that he could do much better in Test cricket.

Mahmudullah made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on July 25, 2007 and from the very beginning he had to fight for his position in the team for quite some time before a reasonable performance against Zimbabwe in the 2014 winter lent some security until the uncertainty was back again during the last Sri Lanka tour.

Former national captain Khaled Mahmud had the opportunity to watch this cricketer as a teammate, coach and official from his early days and he observed that a confident Mahmudullah is dangerous but a demoralised Mahmudullah is ordinary.

“I got the opportunity to watch him from the very beginning of his career and honestly speaking he came to the scene with huge potential. I want to congratulate him for completing 10 years in international cricket. Now, the question is whether he can justify his talent. Yes, initially he failed to justify it but he has been outstanding in his last three-four years and has become an integral part of Bangladesh's success,” said Mahmud.

“Why has he not yet blossomed fully? I think he was a bit unlucky because his uncertain position in the team did not give him the opportunity to settle. In my opinion he is a different player when he gets the confidence and he is simply ordinary when he is demoralised. He is such a player who can destroy any attack if he is confident but even an ordinary bowler appears unplayable when he is doubting himself.

“Riyad sometimes contributed with his innings of 40 or 50 and also with the ball but his hundred against England in Adelaide is special to me and only a master-class batsman can play such a knock,” he continued.

Mahmud thinks that world cricket is yet to see how powerful a striker of the ball Mahmudullah is but believes the man from Mymensingh will fully blossom with the experience of 10 years in international cricket.