Former captain and wicketkeeper-batsman of Bangladesh Cricket Team Mushfiqur Rahim took to Twitter on Sunday to announce his retirement from T20 international cricket. The cricketer also informed that he will continue to play in ODI, Test and league matches. His decision came two days after Bangladesh was knocked out of Asia Cup 2022.
“I would like to announce my retirement from T20 INTERNATIONALS and focus on Test and ODI formats of the game. I will be available to play franchise leagues when the opportunity arrives. Looking forward to proudly represent my nation in the two formats-MR15,” the cricketer tweeted.
The Bangladeshi player’s decision to retire from the T20 format came at a time when the T20 International World Cup is just over a month away. Mushfiqur was going through a below-average form in the T20 format. His last half-century in the format was in last T20 World Cup when he scored 57 (not out) against Sri Lanka.
In the Asia Cup, he scored 1 and 4 in the two matches the team played and lost.
This is the second blow for the Bangladeshi Team after star opener Tamim Iqbal too retired from T20Is earlier this year. He also gave almost the same reason for focusing more on longer formats.
Mushfiqur played a total of 102 T20 matches for the team scoring 1500 runs in the format. His highest score in the format is 72* while he scored six fifties. The cricketer’s best year as a T20 player was in 2018 when he scored 397 runs at an average of 30.53.
The new captain Shakib Al Hasan has a tedious task at hand to try and fill the huge void Mushfiqur’s absence will create especially in the middle order of the team. The next assignment for the team is T20 World Cup in Australia and the team will surely miss two stalwarts in the championship.
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