Why Najmul Shanto Has Dropped Mahmudullah In IND Vs BAN Champions Trophy Match?

Why Mahmudullah is not playing? [Source: @ICC/X.com]

India Vs Bangladesh Champions Trophy clash is set to begin in a few minutes and both the teams have named their respective lineups, with India being the heavy favourites to clinch the victory against the Tigers. Bangladesh won the toss and they had no hesitation in electing to bat first.

The India playing XI didn't sprung a surprise, but Bangladesh lineup raised quite a few eyebrows as their star batter and experienced middle-order player, Mahmudullah was dropped form the side for the India match.

Why was Mahmudullah dropped?

Bangladesh is generally known as a team which generally does not persist with its players, however, for some reason, they picked up Tanzid Hasan in the side despite him averaging in 20s.

The team also went in with Towhid Hridoy in the playing XI which meant that all the players in the top 6 are anchors, meaning they needed an aggressive finisher in the side. Hence, they went in with Jaker Ali at number 7, and that left no spot for Mahmudullah.

The Bangladesh batter has won countless matches for his team, but with age catching up, his batting isn't the same. Jaker Ali has a strike-rate of 111, and Bangladesh know that to beat India, they need an X-factor, and hence, they had to omit Mahmudullah from the side to incorporate an aggressor.

However, there are fresh reports coming that the veteran is having a niggle and hence, it is a precautionary measure to drop him.

IND Vs BAN Playing XIs

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav

Bangladesh Playing XI: Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman

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