Tamim announces retirement from T20Is

Ending months of speculations, Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal announced his retirement from T20Is on Sunday. 

The decision came soon after Tamim, the ODI skipper of Bangladesh, led the Tigers to a 3-0 ODI series sweep of the West Indies with a four-wicket win in the final ODI in Guyana today. 

"Please consider me retired from T20Is from today. Thank you, everyone," Tamim wrote on his official Facebook page.

Upon his request, Tamim had been granted a six-month break from the format in January this year. Since then, the topic of Tamim's availability for the format, especially with the next T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in October-November this year in Australia, has been brought up multiple times, often in a negative way. 

Even Tamim made things murkier when he posted, and then soon deleted, an obscure status on his Facebook page after Bangladesh's loss to West Indies in the second T20I of their recently-concluded series. His post reading, "T20 International" followed by three hand-waving emojis only fueled speculations that the stalwart is about to announce his retirement from the format. 
 
Last month, Tamim had asked the media and everyone else to provide him the courtesy of speaking his mind regarding his T20I future in his own time after speculations were being made about his T20I future.  

Tamim had stayed away from the format for various reasons over the past two years. He opted out of the previous edition of the T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman last year 'to make way for the youngsters'. 

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), which had a number of meetings with Tamim over the issue in the past few months, was always positive and wanted Tamim to be a part of the Tigers' T20 squad for the upcoming World Cup. 

Tamim last played the format for Bangladesh in March 2020 when he featured in a T20I against Zimbabwe in Mirpur. He scored a 33-ball 41 as he helped Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe convincingly in that game. As things stand, that will remain as the 33-year-old's last T20I in a Bangladesh jersey. 

Tamim signs off from the format boasting 1758 runs at an average of 24.08 in 78 T20Is for Bangladesh. He scored a solitary century and seven fifties during his T20I career spanning over 14 years.