"Hathurusingha will likely start work from tomorrow. I am very positive about his return. I have always felt that I have worked with many coaches and have experience of working with him too. From what I know of him, I have very positive feelings," Mahmud told media.

"Maybe he will take us further than where we are right now. The Hathu that was here before didn't have an experienced side but he made that side into a driving force and we started winning games and the dressing room culture changed. There were lots of changes. Hathu will find a more matured team in his hands and he himself is a more matured coach, so in that regard we can hope that we can do something even better under him," he said.

Hathurusingha served the Bangladesh team from 2014-2017 in his first tenure. After the South Africa tour in 2017, he abruptly left the country before making a brief return to Bangladesh with the Sri Lankan team as its head coach.