Mahmudullah’s decline and Tigers’ eternal pursuit of the perfect no 6

Scoring quickly in the powerplay as well as at the death is Bangladesh's perennial problem in white-ball cricket. Most top teams in ODIs tend to almost double their score after the 35-over mark. But it's not the case with Bangladesh. In the second ODI against Afghanistan, despite a scintillating start, Bangladesh faltered at the back end and scored just 34 off the last five overs. 

Bangladesh have gone at a run rate of as low as 7.09 in the final ten overs since 2018, only better than Sri Lanka and Afghanistan among top ten teams, and much of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of Mahmudullah, their designated 'finisher'.

Mahmudullah, after batting brilliantly at the top-order in the 2015 World Cup, could not bat more than 26 innings in the top four. The increasing problem of not scoring enough runs at the slog overs forced the team management to play Mahmudullah as the finisher again. In his career, the right-hander has more than a thousand runs at two positions only - number six and seven.

Some worrisome recent form
But Mahmudullah, 36 now, has not been that effective lately. In the third ODI against Afghanistan, he scored an unbeaten 29 off 53 balls at a strike rate of only 54.7 with no boundaries. He struggled big time against the Afghanistan bowlers right from the start. 

When Bangladesh were required to up the ante, Mahmudullah got off to a very sedate start. After coming into the crease in the 29th over, Mahmudullah took too much time to score runs. He contributed just 11 off 22 balls in the partnership of 28 with Litton Das who was going run-a-ball. But too many dot balls in the partnership forced Litton to play a lofted shot and in the process lose his wicket. 

Then the onus was on Mahmudullah to bat with the tail-enders, something he used to do a lot in his early days, batting in at seven or eight. But the way he was giving the strike to them midway through the overs instead of not retaining the strike looked very odd. It looked like Mahmudullah was not trusting his ability. The three run-outs just added to the misery.

It was a horrible series for him but his numbers suggest that he hasn't been at his best for some time now. Since 2018, Mahmudullah's strike rate in the final 10 overs in ODIs is only 113.4. 41.5% of deliveries he faced at the death during this period were dot balls. 

On top of that, he is not an agile fielder anymore. He dropped a catch in the previous match as well which makes things worse. He is currently the T20I captain but his recent numbers are not too impressive. His strike rate in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) was only 120. 

Are there any replacements?
Mahmudullah is already on the wrong side of his thirties and with this form, it won't be easy for him to retain his position until the 2023 World Cup in India. But the problem is Bangladesh currently don't have a batter who can potentially replace him. If Bangladesh want to look beyond him, they will have no option but to change the combination. 

Bangladesh have a settled top four right now but the problem arises after that. Yasir Ali is yet to cement his spot in the team and Mahmudullah is in horrible form. If Mahmudullah is left out, then Bangladesh have to play Afif at number six and Mehidy Hasan Miraz at number seven and then play an extra bowler. They have previously tried the likes of Mosaddek Hossain in the lower order to finish the innings but he could not do anything mentionable. 

It's true that there is hardly anyone other than Mahmudullah who can play the finisher's role but it can't be denied that he has been in decline. In order to do well in big tournaments like World Cups, a team needs to go big in the slog overs. In the 2019 World Cup, it made a huge difference, especially in Bangladesh's matches against Australia and England. Power-hitting at the death has been a visible difference between Bangladesh and the bigger teams. 

With quite a few major ICC tournaments ahead, Bangladesh should start to look for other options other than Mahmudullah and take the hard decision if his form continues to be the same.