Ending all speculations, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza announced his retirement from the Twenty20 International yesterday during the first of the two-match T20 series against Sri Lanka. The second and final T20 of the series on Thursday will be his last match in this format.
He however will continue the ODI cricket and told his

close alliances that he is keen to play the 2019 World Cup in England. He has not been the part of Test cricket plan since 2009.  Before the start of the first T20 against Sri Lanka at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Mashrafe made the decision public in his verified facebook page.
“It has been a great honor for me to represent Bangladesh in T20I for more than 10 years. I believe that this team is currently a balanced one and there are some promising young stars. I am very much grateful to Bangladesh Cricket Board and high officials for keeping the trust on me to lead this fantastic team,” he said.
“I am also immensely grateful to my loving fans, family, and friends to support me all the time. There were some bad & some good days as well. I always tried to make my fans happy. I am very sorry to each and every fan for not being able to make them happy in every match. Right now as a team we are playing good cricket. I am sure Bangladesh will keep on playing good cricket in the days to come.”
“This is high time for me to say good-bye to T20 format so that many youngsters can get the opportunity to showcase their talent and thus BCB can nurture them for the future. Let me congratulate the new captain in advance and I am sure the best is yet to come.
See you soon, Love!”
Meanwhile, SHakib Al Hasan has been named the new captain of the Tigers’ T20 side. Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hasan Papon, who is currently in Sri Lanka with the team, yesterday told reporters that the ace all-rounder would lead the side after Mashrafe retires from the shortest version of the game after the ongoing series.
Mashrafe’s future in T20 looked bleak after the World T20 in India in the last year as the team management stressed upon the requirements of building a team with highly energetic and athletic. His prolonged injury concern also kept the management worried and there was some pressure on him to quit.
Before ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka, BCB president Nazmul Hasan Papon refused the notion that there was any pressure on Mashrafe to retire from this version but somehow it was always on the cards. Team sources in Colombo however said, he hurried his retirement decision in the wake of the internal clash in deciding the playing squad for the T20 series.
Bangladesh’s first T20 against Zimbabwe in 2006 was also Mashrafe first match in this format. He has played 53 off 66 T20 matches that Bangladesh played till the first T20 against Sri Lanka. He claimed 39 wickets in those matches with the best of four for 19 against Ireland in Belfast in 2012. Mashrafe led the side in 27 T20 matches amongst which Bangladesh won nine before the first match against Sri Lanka.