Riyad to lead in Tests

Mahmudullah Riyad will lead the Tigers in the two-match Test series against Zimbabwe from November 3 in Sylhet in the absence of the injured Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan confirmed to The Daily Star yesterday.

"There were two options -- Mushfiqur [Rahim] and [Mahmudullah] Riyad. Mushfiqur wouldn't have been a bad choice. They (the cricket operations committee) came to me with Mushfiqur's name but what I told them was: 'If you make Mushfiq captain, then you have to keep him as captain'," Hasan said.

"'You will hand Mushfiqur captaincy for the Zimbabwe series and then if Shakib comes back for the West Indies series and says that he will play then what would happen? Will I tell Mushfiqur to give up captaincy again? That would have been an insult [to Mushfiqur] and I did not want to let that happen," Hassan explained as his reasoning for picking Riyad.

"Tell me to give Mushfiqur captaincy and I will say that in the board meeting. That is a different issue and if I am convinced then I will agree. But you will bring him and then relieve him of that duty… that can't be done with Mushfiqur," he continued.

Hassan also said that the hardest decision in his tenure as BCB president was to remove Mushfiqur from captaincy in 2014.

"It was one of the hardest decisions in my life [to remove Mushfiqur from captaincy], the second was Shakib's punishment. There was nothing harder than this as he [Mushfiqur] was the most successful captain," Hassan informed.