Mahmudullah pips Tamim to captaincy for first SL T20

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) named Mahmudullah as the T20 captain for the first game of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, starting February 15.

Mahmudullah will stand in for Shakib Al Hasan as captain after the allrounder failed to sufficiently recover from his finger injury which he had sustained during the ODIs. Uncapped left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam replaced Shakib in the squad.

Nazmul had been performing well in domestic cricket, particularly the BPL, through the last three seasons.

Mahmudullah, meanwhile, pipped Tamim Iqbal to take over the T20 captaincy after BCB president Nazmul Hassan had named Tamim as vice-captain of the T20 team in December, while naming Shakib as new Test captain.

In 2014, Tamim was bypassed for the T20 captaincy, also against Sri Lanka, when Mashrafe Mortaza took over from Mushfiqur Rahim despite Tamim being the designated deputy.

Squad: Mahmudullah (capt), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Abu Hider, Abu Jayed, Ariful Hoque, Mahedi Hasan, Zakir Hasan, Afif Hossain, Nazmul Ismail