Mahmudullah officially retires from Tests
Bangladesh batter Mahmudullah Riyad announced retirement from Tests today, more than four months after he was given a guard of honour on his 50th Test during an encounter against Zimbabwe in Harare.
"Leaving a format of which I have been a part of for such a long time is not easy. I had always thought of going on a high and I believe this is the right time to end my Test career," Mahmudullah was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The news of his retirement came just a day before Bangladesh are scheduled to play first of their two World Test Championship fixtures against Pakistan in Chattogram.
In his final innings for the country, Mahmudullah scored his career-best unbeaten 150 which was his fifth century in the format. The right-handed batter scored a total of 2914 runs at an average of 33.49 in the format.
Although the official announcement came today, it was made clear by the batter and his teammates in July this year during Bangladesh's last Test against Zimbabwe, for which the batter was called into the Test squad after 17 months of forced exile from the format. After giving a guard of honour to the player, a number of Bangladesh players paid their tribute to Mahmudullah through their social media posts. But no one, including Mahmudullah himself, made any official announcement in this regard at that time.
"I am officially announcing my retirement from test cricket. I received the Man of the match award both in my debut & the last test match. Alhamdulillah, It has been a wonderful journey in test cricket. I would like to thank my family, teammates, coaches & BCB for their support in red-ball cricket. I would also like to thank my fans for their love & support. In Shaa Allah I will be continuing in white-ball formats for Bangladesh. Thank you," wrote Mahmudullah on his official Facebook page.
The skipper of the country's T20 format, Mahmudullah also informed that he would continue representing the nation in the shorter formats.
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