‘Disappointing to get out after the hard work’

With just 59 runs in three World Cup matches so far, Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal has come under the spotlight. Known to be someone who gives his batting processes and results a lot of mental space, his awareness of his own form came through when he was answering a question yesterday about how the West Indies bowling attack compared to the three teams he had batted against so far.

“Right now, every bowling attack seems good to me,” said Tamim with a wry smile during a press conference ahead of their World Cup match against the West Indies tomorrow. “The first three bowling attacks I played against, all are more or less equal. West Indies have pace, three bowlers who bowl above 140. The good thing is we have played all three in the last year and a half. So there won’t be anything new for us.”

Since the last World Cup in 2015, the once swashbuckling left-hander has assumed a new role of trying to bat deep into a 50-over innings, with the rest of the batsmen batting around him. He has excelled in this role, scoring seven of his 11 centuries and 18 of his 46 fifties at an average of 54.68 in that period. His method has been to see through the initial testing periods and when he had managed to do that, he generally played a substantial innings. With scores of 16, 24 and 19 so far, Tamim identified the source of his disappointment as getting out after having done the hard work.

“Normally, I think my type of batting is that I either get out quickly or if I bat through 10 overs, normally I play a big knock,” he said. “That was the disappointing thing, that I did the hard work in the three matches – overcoming the initial challenge in the first five or six overs. Things should have come in my favour then, but in two of the three matches I threw my wicket away. I hope if I get a start day after tomorrow [Monday], I will make it count.”