Mahmudullah Riyad announced as stand-in skipper for first T20I

Experienced all-rounder Mahmudullah Riyad will lead Bangladesh in the first Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka, confirmed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Meanwhile, Sri Lanka will play two-match T20I series against Bangladesh and the series will kick off on February 15 in Dhaka.

Also, he will replace regular captain Shakib Al Hasan, who was ruled out of the first match because of a finger injury. Shakib sustained the injury during the One-day International tri-series final against Sri Lanka in January.

Meanwhile, uncapped left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam Apu will replace Shakib in the squad.

Mahmudullah to remove question marks:

Mahmudullah admitted they are desperate to remove doubts as a T20 team. Further, he stated Bangladesh has developed in this format like other two formats.

“Twenty20 is a different format altogether and the pace of it is quite different from other formats,” Mahmudullah said in Mirpur.

“We have to remove the question mark attached to us as a Twenty20 unit. We are keen to give a message to all the teams in the world that we are developing at the same pace when it comes to Twenty20 comparing to Test and ODIs,” Mahmudullah added.

Playing at home is not a pressure:

Mahmudullah Riyad also admitted playing at home will not put pressure on him. However, expectations are high considering the fan following in the nation.

“We have raised the expectations by playing well at home for the last three years and unfortunately we could not deliver in this series,” Mahmudullah mentioned.

“There is another opportunity in front of us and we must grab it,” Mahmudullah said.

Bangladesh needs to put up a good show to better their rankings. Bangladesh is currently ranked at 10th below Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. However, this resulted because of not playing too many games in this format.

However, they have quite a few T20 games lined up in the upcoming months. Nidhas Trophy will follow at the end of the series which marks the 70 years of Sri Lankan independence including India.

A T20I series against Windies is also lined up after the Nidahas Trophy in June.

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