T20I endgame for Mahmudullah?

Will Mahmudullah get a second chance to say a final goodbye to T20Is? Writing off a cricketer's future can always turn out to be a big mistake given the sport's propensity to flip the narrative on its head.

Mahmudullah, who was excluded from the squad picked for the upcoming T20 World Cup, can certainly take inspiration and move forward with the hope that the door's not shut on him with regards to playing the short format, reports Cricbuzz. 

It is too early to predict whether it will turn into reality or not but with the Bangladesh Cricket Board seeking a new brand of T20 cricket for T20 format, that possibility could seem far-fetched.

The team management has pondered long over Mahmudullah's place in the side and his sustained lack of form seemed to have outweighed the experience he brought to the table.

Cricbuzz understand Mahmudullah was even offered a farewell game in the upcoming tri-nation tournament as the board felt that the veteran cricketer deserved to end his T20I career at the ground. Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim's decision to announce their retirement on their social media handle did not go well with the BCB high-ups and as a result they offered Mahmudullah to think about the proposal of playing a farewell game in New Zealand.

"Mahmudullah did not agree and said that he is not ready to retire and insisted he will play for another two years and try to make his way back in the national team," a BCB official involved with the development confirmed Cricbuzz on Wednesday.

It is understood that the former skipper did not expect to be axed just ahead of the T20I World Cup and more so after he was given to feel that he was very much part of the team's plans for the global tournament.

The team management's insistence on bringing him back during the T20s on the Zimbabwe tour after excluding him initially also filled him up false confidence. Curiously, Cricbuzz has learnt that when the selection panel asked T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan whether they should include Mahmudullah in the squad, Shakib came up with a diplomatic answer, insisting that he was ready to go with anything and that he neither endorsed nor opposed Mahmudullah's inclusion in the squad.

However, Mahmudullah's omission was hardly a surprise after BCB President Nazmul Hasan hinted at the eventuality days before the announcement squad. Technical director Sridharan Sriram's insistence that he was looking for impact players rather than performers only suggested that the veteran would have to make way for the new cricketing philosophy that the team is trying to embrace.

Sriram's decision to invest on young Yasir Ali in place of Mahmudullah despite not having the chance to see him from close distance as he missed the Asia Cup due to injury only indicates that the team management has bought in on the youth over experience mantra.

"I am quite eager to see more of Yasir," Sriram told reporters during his media interaction after the team was announced at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday. "He has the power that Bangladesh lacks as a T20 team. Somebody who can clear the ropes and find the boundaries. I think Rabbi (Yasir) is a very exciting prospect," he added.

Mahmudullah meanwhile will have to cast his disappointment aside and work his way back into contention in the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League, the country's lone franchise-based T20 tournament. Only time will tell whether he can yank himself back into T20I narrative once more.