‘Tamim let down by teammates’

Former Bangladesh batsman and ambassador for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 Habibul Bashar feels that Tamim Iqbal was let down by his teammates in the match against Australia.

Bashar believes that Tamim was very unfortunate to miss out on successive centuries, he wrote in his column for icc-cricket.com.

Bashar wrote about the vitality of Tamim’s fantastic batting display and the short-comings of the other batsmen:

“Tamim Iqbal was quite outstanding, and he was extremely unfortunate to miss out on a second successive century in the tournament. I thought this was an even better knock than against England, simply because the conditions were particularly challenging.

“While there wasn’t too much swing, Australia’s pace attack is of the highest quality, and Mitchell Starc in particular was really bowling quickly. Tamim weathered the storm excellently and more than held his own, but unfortunately, he was let down by his team-mates.

I don’t think the other Bangladeshi batsmen had a technical shortcoming. After all, this same top-six has played and performed in different conditions in different parts of the world. I think the problem, if any, was in the mind.”

He felt that a number of Bangladesh batsman got out due poor shot selection.

“In my opinion, this was a 240-250 pitch, given both the conditions and the fact that it would wear a little as the night unfolded. Had one of the other top-order batsmen kept Tamim company, who knows what the final tally would have been,” Bashar concluded.