Mahmudullah’s trials far from complete
Mahmudullah Riyad played his 100th T20I for the Tigers yesterday and, in the time since his debut against Kenya in Nairobi in 2007, Bangladesh's T20I captain has come leap and bounds and established himself as a vital member in the game's shortest format. The third T20I against New Zealand was Riyad's 350th match overall and although he could not mark the occasion with a victory, his task of leading the Tigers through challenges remains the same despite their recent spate of T20 successes.
Only Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Tamim Iqbal have more matches under their belt across all formats for Bangladesh, but no one has been as prevalent in the shortest format as Riyad, who featured in 100 of the Tigers' last 109 T20Is.
Despite being one of the team's stalwarts in all formats with the bat, his contribution has often remained inconspicuous due to the role he has had to play. Usually coming in to bat at number six, his position in the batting order does not match his calibre. It has often been a sacrificial role or one that is geared towards disaster management but it is also while playing such roles that Riyad was able to shine, chiefly due to his ability to take on pressure.
Being in the Tigers' T20 lineup for so long and being under the constant duress of managing batting collapses and accelerating late in the innings also honed his ability to think of the team's approach and the greater good. Riyad's journey to becoming Bangladesh's most successful T20I captain – which he secured by winning 12 out of 25 matches as captain at a 48 per cent success rate -- is not a small one and becomes more significant given the Tigers' record in T20 cricket.
His T20 calibre was on full show in the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka back in 2018. It all went haywire in the final group match at Colombo that evening as the Tigers ousted hosts Sri Lanka and made it into the final thanks to Riyad's unbeaten 18-ball 43. Having captained the Tigers in the tournament till that game, Riyad relinquished the role to Shakib for that match. But on the field, when chaos took over and Shakib started calling his players back because he felt wronged by an umpiring decision, Riyad held firm and calmed others. He made them believe that something could be done and his flicked six off Isuru Udana off the penultimate delivery to win the game went down as one of Bangladesh cricket's great moments.
However, his task of making the Tigers more resilient is not at an end as he leads them to the upcoming T20 World Cup. The third T20I at Mirpur yesterday saw the Kiwis come back into the series with a thumping 52-run victory that reminded the Tigers of old wounds.
A below-strength New Zealand showed continuous improvement since arriving here but Bangladesh's reply with the bat was calamitous yesterday. When New Zealand showed more application, the Tigers did not come up with the answers even on friendly conditions. If the team is to continue in the same vein of success it found only recently, for Riyad, the task remains the same: show the Tigers how not to break down when faced with even slightly challenging scenarios.