In what can be dubbed a shocking statement, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan Papon revealed that Tigers' dashing opener Tamim Iqbal is not interested to play the T20s.
Papon said this on Saturday hours after the left-handed batter smashed his second consecutive half-century in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 tournament, reports BSS.
"Last time when I talked to him over telephone, I told him to get back to T20 cricket. I said you are our best opener so why you would quit this format. You must play," Papon said.
"He just told me one thing that "please don't force me." If you force me, I have to play. But I really don't want to play this format. When he said this, it seems to me that I should not force him further. If anyone doesn't want to play, I should not force him."
Tamim last played T20 International cricket in 2020 and then was out of the action for a long time to recover from his injury. However he withdrew his name from the T20 World Cup squad by showing the reason that those who played regularly in this format, should be included in the squad ahead of him.
Rumour was rife that T20 captain Mahmudullah Riyad doesn't want Tamim to be included into the World Cup squad since he was out of the game for a long time, which angered the opener so much so that he withdrew his name. Both Tamim and Riyad refuted this rumour.
Meanwhile, Tamim's slow approach in T20 format was also criticized vehemently for some time now. Critics said his slow batting put pressure on the middle order to increase the run rate and the urge forced Bangladesh's collapse more often in this format.
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