The T20 consultant of Bangladesh, Sridharan Sriram and Mahmudullah Riad.
The T20 consultant of Bangladesh, Sridharan Sriram, compared Mahmudullah Riad with MS Dhoni of India while explaining the reason behind dropping Mahmudullah for the T20 World Cup that will take place in late October in Australia.
Bangladesh announced a 15-member squad for the World Cup that has no place for Mahmudullah. He was going through a bad patch for a while now, and that has eventually prompted the selectors to overlook him from the format. Sridharan said the Bangladesh team now need a succession plan to look at the future and to do that, they have to rely on the new guns more.
"I think our cricket team needs to have a succession plan," Sridharan said after the announcement of the squad on Wednesday. "I have always equated Mahmudullah with MS Dhoni with the role that he performs for the team. He batted at No 6 just like Dhoni has done for India. He has finished off games. Dhoni cannot go on forever and ever, right?"
He also said that Bangladesh needs to look forward to finding out the right talent who can put his feet in the big shoes of Mahmudullah. According to him, to find a talent like that, Bangladesh needs to try out the new faces. Sridharan, who took on the role right before the Asia Cup, was the "bad man" to tell Mahmudullah that he is not a part of Bangladesh's World Cup plan. Sridharan said it was tough for him to do it.
While Mahmudullah has been dropped, Bangladesh included Najmul Hossain Shanto in the squad. The left-handed batter wasn't a part of the Bangladesh team during the Asia Cup. But he found a place in the World Cup doing nothing remarkable in the format. Sridharan said he thinks Najmul has an X-factor to do well in T20Is. Ltion Das, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Yasir Ali Rabbi and Hasan Mahmud are also in the squad. They missed Asia Cup for injuries, but they are now fit to make a comeback.
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