Is this the beginning of the end for Mahmudullah?
Not only has the T20I team been struggling for form, but he has also been a shadow of his former self with the bat.
Mahmudullah Riyad has been given a break from captaincy and has not been included in the T20I squad that is set to tour Zimbabwe for a three-match series, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) told the media on Friday.
Along with him, stalwart Mushfiqur Rahim has also not been included for the T20Is while Shakib Al Hasan is not in the ODI squad either.
Although the BCB had previously stated that it would send the full-strength squad to Zimbabwe, it has eventually changed its decision.
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Pressure had been mounting on Mahmudullah for a while now after a poor showing in the T20I World Cup and not a single series win after that.
Not only has the T20I team been struggling for form, but he has also been a shadow of his former self with the bat.
He has managed just 72 runs in five matches with an average of 14.40 and a highest score of 22.
It's clear that the results of the team under his captaincy recently and his form have both contributed to this decision by the BCB to name Nurul Hasan Sohan as captain for the Zimbabwe series.
While Mahmudullah has not been sacked as captain and Sohan has not been made permanent, the BCB have expressed that they are trying to change things as results have not gone according to plan.
They have reiterated that picking Sohan as captain is not an experiment and they want to try and do better in a format they have been struggling in since the last World Cup.
The next T20I World Cup is a few months away and the BCB are perhaps not willing to make any drastic changes in the team but are looking to increase their pool of T20I players and options ahead of it.
A good series for Sohan with the bat and as captain could tip the scales further against Mahmudullah, who is on thin ice at the moment.
While there have been calls to drop the 36-year-old, it can also be argued that there are no sure-shot replacements for him.
Only time will tell what happens with Mahmudullah but it's clear that decisions like these needed to be taken earlier for the team to be better prepared for the upcoming T20I World Cup, but as they say, better late than never.
