Bangladesh batsman and now, captain of the side Mahmudullah is among the most reliable players in the world. He has been a consistent run-getter for his team and has also led them to many victories. Now, as a captain, he has a responsibility to raise the level of his team's performance. Whether he succeeds or not remains to be seen.
But one person in India has seen enough to compare the leadership of Mahmudullah with the Indian legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Speaking on host broadcaster Star Sports' show, Irfan Pathan made this very interesting observation.
"When you win a match against one of the best teams in the world, it helps in boosting your confidence and Mahmudullah had shown great qualities of a captain including the changes he made during the match.
"There was a hint of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his captaincy as he also used part-time bowlers after the power play which is a strategy often used by Dhoni," the all-rounder stated.
This comment may seem very pre-mature since it was made after just one match where Mahmudullah led the side. But Pathan is a veteran of Indian cricket and has seen the captaincy of Dhoni up, close and personal. If he finds some affinity in the way the current Bangladesh skipper leads his side and the way MSD rallied his troops, then it has to be given some value.
Mahmudullah became the skipper of Bangladesh's T20I team after their incumbent captain Shakib-Al-Hasan received a two-year ban for violating International Cricket Council (ICC's) Anti-Corruption Code.
Under the new captain, Bangladesh registered their first-ever victory over India. The star of this win, though, was the former captain Mushfiqur Rahim who scored a brilliant half-century to get his team to the target. Quite aptly, though, the winning runs were struck by Mahmudullah in the last over of the game.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, they lost their next match to the Indian team badly and thereby, will now have to win the last match in the 3-game T20I series in order to emerge victorious in the rubber.
While all this talk is going on, the man who is being remembered by Pathan, MS Dhoni, continues to be away from the game. Speculation is rife about the future of MSD with some people thinking that he should call it a day.
Yet, the new president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sourav Ganguly, has said that Dhoni would be allowed to decide on his own future.
