T20 World Cup: His run-a-ball 111, laced with 11 fours and four sixes, in Bangladesh’s 149-run defeat to South Africa has raised a lot of questions on the batting position of Mohammad Mahmudullah.Mahmudullah came to bat at No.6 after the top five had returned to the pavilion with58 runs on the board and struck a brilliant counter-attacking hundred, raising vital partnerships with the lower order to help Bangladesh reach 233 and give the score some respectability.
However, from his responses to questions in the post-match press conference, it was clear Mahmudullah was not happy with the way things are being handled in Bangladesh setup. He was axed for last year’s T20 World Cup due to poor form and missed many matches in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup.
Asked about his absence from the team for a while and whether he is batting a bit down the order, Mahmudullah gave a diplomatic answer.
“I can’t say anything regarding that, though I do want to talk about a lot of things, but probably this is not the right time to talk about it,” said Mahmudullah, who has led Bangladesh in both T20s and ODIs earlier.
The 37-year-old, who made his debut way back in 2007, also refused to talk about Bangladesh’s preparations ahead of the World Cup.
“The thing is that I can’t comment on those things because it’s an outside matter and it is not the right time to make any comment on those issues. Whatever happened – happened -all we can do is try to win the game for Bangladesh and we’re trying, we’re trying very hard but it’s not happening – but you will see a different Bangladesh team,” he added.
The Bangladesh batter, however, said he did not target a hundred when he started batting with the tail on Tuesday and just wanted to bat out the 50 overs.
“Actually, I didn’t target my hundred – to be honest, because you just bat – when me and Mustafizur were batting in the middle, I told him – just stay on, hold on. Let us play 50 overs, and let’s see what score we can get because there is an issue with the run rate because if you get out early and cheaply, it will affect our net run rate too – so I just tried to go deep, just bat and try to score some runs for the team,” said Mahmudullah.
Asked whether his innings on Tuesday was a warning to the team think tank, Mahmudullah said he didn’t think about that.
“No, I didn’t think about that. Yesterday the coach told me that I’m going to bat at number six. So that’s it. I just go out there and try to play my game. And that’s it. Nothing really special,” he added.
