Time has almost washed away the memories of the ACC Rising Stars Tournament final. But has Mahidul Islam Ankon truly moved past that night? He was dismissed for a duck after facing five balls in the final. And yes—he had scored just 1 run in the semifinal. Across four innings in the tournament, he managed only 36 runs, striking at 76.59.
Despite such performances in a youth-level Asia Cup, the selectors believe he is ready for international cricket. With the World Cup approaching, the wicketkeeper-batter has been included in the squad for the final series against Ireland.
A day before the series began, Bangladesh captain Litton Kumar Das faced a heated press conference dominated by questions about Shamim Hossain. Ankon’s name did not come up as much, but in reality, his selection should be just as big a talking point—and again, it places the selectors under scrutiny.
You might think: Rising Stars was just one tournament. Why judge him based on that?
But the real question is the opposite—where has Mahidul performed well recently?
To find good T20 performances from him, you have to go back almost a year. His BPL season last time was excellent for the role he was given. But in the last 10 months, he has barely produced anything notable in T20 cricket. And yet, unbelievably, he has been picked for the national team.
Before the Rising Stars event in Qatar, Mahidul played in the National League T20 in Sylhet. In that tournament—far below international standards—he scored 116 runs in 5 innings at a strike rate of 116.83.
Earlier, he played in Australia’s Top End T20, where the standard wasn’t impressive either. Mahidul scored 19 runs in 3 innings, striking at 90.47. In July’s Globus Super League, he made 66 runs in 4 innings at a strike rate of 124.52.
Across 24 T20 innings this year, he has not scored a single fifty.
Yet he has been chosen for Bangladesh ahead of a World Cup.
His last fifty came last December, in the BPL—where he genuinely shone. Playing for Khulna Tigers, he excelled as a finisher, scoring 316 runs at an average of 35.11 and a strike rate of 174.58. Among players with at least 300 runs, he had the highest strike rate in the tournament.
That BPL performance is the basis for his selection now. Chief selector Gazi Ashraf Hossain said exactly that.
But naturally, this leads to a bigger question: why is he being rewarded for a performance from so long ago?
And an even bigger surprise comes from the chief selector’s explanation. He says Mahidul has been picked to bat at No. 4 or No. 5. Meaning—a player who excelled as a finisher in the BPL is suddenly being taken into the national team as a “proper” middle-order batter!
Yes, sometimes a finisher may end up batting at No. 4 or No. 5 depending on match situations.
But in Bangladesh’s usual scenarios, those positions demand genuine middle-order responsibility. Recently, the team’s middle order has struggled badly. Yet for these crucial positions, the selectors have picked someone who hasn’t proven himself in this role for a long time.
This year, in 13 innings at No. 4 and No. 5, he has scored 305 runs at an average of 25.41, without a fifty, striking at 121.03.
Ironically, he has been selected in place of Shamim—even though Shamim is actually a finisher!
And then came the chief selector’s most baffling justification. He said that if Mahidul isn’t tested now, “then when?”
But this series was never meant for experiments or trials. Its purpose was to fill small gaps, fine-tune combinations, and sharpen the team right before the World Cup.
If someone needed to be tested for No. 4 or No. 5, that could—and should—have happened a year ago, or six months ago, or at least three months ago. Journalists have repeatedly asked selectors, coaches, and captains about the lack of backup options in these positions. They brushed it off each time.
Yet now, in the final series before the World Cup, the chief selector says now or never.
Even if Mahidul performs well in this series, the questions about the process will remain.
Mahidul’s unexpected entry into the squad reflects not just the selection process—but a deeper snapshot of Bangladesh cricket itself.
