Mushfiqur Rahim has made it clear he will not be pulling on Bangladesh’s 50-over shirt again. The wicketkeeper-batter, who quit ODIs after last year’s Champions Trophy disappointment, confirmed in Sylhet on Friday that senior figures had sounded him out about a U-turn but that he has chosen to stay retired.
“I did get the message (to return to the ODI side), but I feel that they don’t need my service any longer. They are doing well, and they will keep getting better,” he said, a touch of finality in his voice.
That message is understood to have come mainly from Mehidy Hasan Miraz. The new ODI captain has spoken publicly about shoring up a middle order that wobbled against New Zealand at home, and he saw Mushfiqur’s experience—274 ODIs, 7,795 runs, nine hundreds—as a safety net. The pair exchanged a few calls over the past couple of months, but the veteran was not persuaded.
From the outside, the idea made sense. Mushfiqur’s calm at No. 5 or No. 6 rescued Bangladesh on plenty of fraught afternoons between 2009 and 2025, helping the side evolve from plucky underdogs into regular contenders. Yet the 37-year-old feels the current crop should be trusted to find their own way. “If I return now, someone younger misses out,” he told team-mates privately, according to a BCB source. “That’s not how succession is meant to work.”
For now he remains a Test-only cricketer, having left T20Is in 2022. He managed ten matches in last season’s Dhaka Premier League and has signed for Mohammedan Sporting again, though a busy family schedule has delayed his first appearance this term.
Bangladesh supporters may still remember the fresh-faced teenager who out-kept Khaled Mashud at the 2007 World Cup, but time moves on. Mushfiqur insists he will help “whenever asked” behind the scenes—batting clinics, the odd pep talk—but the numbered green jersey is staying in the wardrobe.
Whether the middle order copes without him will be one of the smaller sub-plots of a summer that also features Pakistan’s visit. For now, the man himself seems content watching from the slip cordon in whites, rather than pacing the balcony in coloured kit.
