Dhaka 4th September : The veteran Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim on Sunday announced his retirement from T20I cricket, stating that he did it to extend his One-day and Test career.He is also looking into possibilities of playing in the many franchise T20 leagues across the globe.Mushfiqur announced the news via social media after Bangladesh’s disappointing performance in the Asia Cup T20 tournament, taking place in the UAE in the UAE, where Bangladesh’s campaign was concluded in the group stage itself.
Bangladesh did not reach the Super Four stage, losing to both Afghanistan and Sri Lanka with the 35-year-old Rahim scoring 1 and 4 runs , respectively, in Group B.
“I want to announce my decision to retire from T20 International and concentrate on the Test and the ODI format of the game.I’m available for franchise leagues when the chance arises.Looking forward to proudly representing my country in the two formats MR15 (Rahim’s Twitter handle),” tweeted the cricketer.
The wicketkeeper-batter performed admirably in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, where despite ending in the side of the losers, Rahim finished as the second-highest scorer with 303 runs.
He also had two centuries to showcase his efforts.
In the opening Test he was also the first Bangladesh player to achieve 5 000 Test runs.
His 105 runs in the opening Test was instrumental in helping Bangladesh gain a 68-run advantage.But his second ton of the series was made in more difficult conditions.
Rahim has played an entire series of 52 Tests including 236 ODIs as well as more than a hundred of T20Is.He has scored more than 13,000 runs in the three formats.
The average in T20I cricket is abysmal for a wicketkeeper-batter.He has scored 1500 runs in 19.48 in the 102 matches he has played in the most compact format.
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