Mushfiq’s T20I retirement was long overdue

Mushfiqur Rahim, who took part in each of the T20 World Cups so far, has announced retirement from T20Is a month and a half before the commencement of the mega event in Australia. With this decision, Shakib Al Hasan remains the only active T20I player from the XI that played Bangladesh's first T20I. 

Mushfiq's decision came after a poor show with the bat and the gloves in Bangladesh's unsuccessful Asia Cup 2022 campaign but if you've followed his T20I career, you certainly know the decision should've come much earlier - probably a year or so ago.

After a mediocre start, Mushfiqur developed himself as one of the world's most improved batters, particularly in Tests and ODIs. If you break his career down into two halves, you'll find a marked improvement in the second half. In 2014, his Test average was 33 (which is now 38) and his ODI average was 29 (which is now almost 37). 

But what's remarkable is that his T20I average and strike-rate from 2014 didn't improve at all and on top of that the strike-rate came down from 117 to 115. 

Clearly, T20I was never Mushfiqur's strong format although he is still one of the most successful batters in the Bangladesh Premier League, the country's franchise T20 competition, where his average (37) and strike-rate (133) are far better than those in international cricket. Somehow he couldn't translate his domestic numbers into international ones.

But still, he continued to play T20Is and held on to the gloves. He was not the best of batters in the middle-order and certainly not the best gloveman. In his final (102nd) T20I match, Mushfiqur reached the milestone of 1500 runs. No batter needed so many matches to achieve the feat and Mushfiqur's average and strike-rate are the lowest among batters with minimum 1500 runs. Wasim Akram, on air, criticised his strike-rate during the match against Sri Lanka. 

Mushfiqur had a forgettable 2021 T20 World Cup and apart from the fifty against Sri Lanka, he was pretty off-colour which saw him getting dropped from the T20I squad for the Pakistan series right after the tournament. 

Then he landed in hot waters, as he often does, by giving a statement contrary to the selectors. Mushfiqur is famous for his antics on and off the field which has made him a divisive figure. But the fans would've forgotten everything if the performances were there.

His slump in batting form is not recent and you cannot remember many occasions when Mushfiqur guided Bangladesh to wins in T20Is. 

His 72 not out against Sri Lanka in a stiff chase in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy, a fine 60 not out against India the next year to beat them for the first time and a quick-fire 41 not out on his captaincy debut against the West Indies remain the highlights of his T20I career. 

Since that India innings, Mushfiqur has averaged only 19 - identical to his career average in T20Is - but the strike-rate dropped to 101.7 which is almost unforgivable in this format. Yet, he was dropped for only one series although it was termed as a 'rest' by the selectors. 

Selectors frequently have to face this dilemma. They cannot often make the brave call of leaving out a player who has been serving the team for more than one and a half decades. But it's always up to the player how long he wants to play and it's important that he knows when to leave.

Mushfiqur has been out of sorts for a very long time in T20Is. Certainly, he wasn't enjoying the format. A batter cannot enjoy the game when he is out of runs. England's successful captain Eoin Morgan retired after experiencing a slump in form. Even Mushfiqur's compatriot Tamim Iqbal kept himself away from the format before retiring in July. 

If Mushfiqur had done that earlier, the exit would not have been unceremonious. He announced retirement at such a time when there was constant pressure from everywhere - from media, fans and whatnot. The culture of leaving the game when it's not too late hasn't yet developed in the country and Mushfiqur becomes the latest player not to have said goodbye to a format from the field. 

It was a decision long overdue and one would expect Mushfiqur to remain consistent in the other two formats.