Mahmudullah

Allrounder Mahmudullah, a middle-order batter who bowls useful offspin and is one of Bangladesh's best fielders of all time, grew into one of the five pillars of the country's set-up in their post-2010 period of growth and relative success. He is in the modern group of allrounders who have aggregated 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in international cricket across formats.

Mahmudullah was Bangladesh's sixth-highest run-scorer in Tests when he retired from the format in 2021. A natural leader, and regarded as a shrewd thinker on the game by team-mates, he also captained Bangladesh, predominantly in T20Is, including in the 2021 World Cup.

He learned his game in his hometown, Mymensingh, north of Dhaka, before coming to the capital to take part in the ACC Under-15 tournament in Malaysia in 2000, which also featured the likes of Irfan Pathan of India and Farveez Maharoof of Sri Lanka. Mahmudullah also played for MCC Young Cricketers in 2005 before he took domestic one-day cricket in Dhaka by storm.

He duly slotted into Bangladesh's senior white-ball side in 2007, and a Test debut came in 2009, when he took 12 wickets in two away Tests against West Indies, still one of Bangladesh's best overseas bowling performances. He made an unbeaten 96 against India in his next series, and in the match after that, a Test century against New Zealand in Hamilton. The legendary Bangladeshi journalist Utpal Shuvro remarked after that innings that some of Mahmudullah's strokes had shades of VVS Laxman.

Hamilton would become one of his favourite grounds, with two more centuries coming there - first in the 2015 World Cup, and then in a Test match in 2019. That World Cup hundred was the second of two back-to-back ones; the first came in Bangladesh's iconic win against England in Adelaide.

White-ball cricket has been Mahmudullah's strong suit. He evolved from a lower-order batter to a middle-order one, and often even batted in the top three, giving the team flexibility. More impressive was the way he transformed himself into a T20 finisher in the second half of the 2020s, mastering, among other things, the aerial flick over fine leg - a shot that he used to win a tight, controversial game against Sri Lanka in 2018.

He lost the T20I captaincy after a dismal T20 World Cup in 2021, the year he played his last Test, and then his place in the ODI side two years later. But Bangladesh's batting regressed so much in the months that followed that the selectors were forced to bring him back, and he went on to have another solid World Cup showing, in India in 2023, averaging over 54 in his seven innings. He endured a horror run in the T20 version in 2024, though.

Late that year, he struck a purple patch - though in series losses - making 98 in an ODI against Afghanistan, and then three fifties, two of them unbeaten, in Basseterre against West Indies.

Curiously, Mahmudullah has been a victim in six international hat-tricks.