Tamim’s World Cup

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal last played in a twenty20 international match in March last year, and that has put a question over his head: Will the veteran batsman be picked for the T20 World Cup later this year?

Tamim’s last T20I match was against Zimbabwe on March 9, 2020, where he scored 41 off 33 deliveries. He was rested by the team management in the next match, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh were away from international cricket for almost a year before West Indies arrived in January this year.

Bangladesh toured New Zealand in March, and Tamim, the one-day international captain of the Tigers, opted out of the three-match T20I series.

Then, Tamim played in the Dhaka Premier League, arranged in T20 format this year for the upcoming World Cup and injured himself. Despite getting hurt in his right knee, he went on to play the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe. But because of his injury, he was then out for eight to ten weeks and had to sit out the T20I series against Zimbabwe and Australia.

Tamim will also be unavailable in the upcoming five-match T20I series vs New Zealand starting on September 1 and with England’s tour of Bangladesh rescheduled to 2023, Tamim will have no match practice before the World Cup comes along.

Tamim is supposed to be fit by early September and will have time before Bangladesh head out to Oman for their qualifying round matches.

Bangladesh Cricket Board chief selector Minhajul Abedin earlier hinted that Tamim is in their World Cup plans as he said that he believed Tamim would take no time to adapt once he is back from his injury.

“Tamim is vastly experienced. When he comes back to the international arena, he will take no time in adapting. Any player may get injured. How quickly they return from the injury is important. Hopefully, he will be back by September and will be fit for the World Cup,” Minhajul said.

But yet, the question of whether to take a player with zero match practice before such a big event still looms largely. And when the format is T20I, Tamim’s effectiveness also comes into question.

Among Bangladesh openers who have played ten T20I innings, Tamim ranks third-lowest in strike rate with only Naim Sheikh and Imrul Kayes beneath him. His strike rate of 117.47 puts him way behind Liton Das, who tops the list with a strike rate of 145.29. Soumya Sarkar, another opener vying for a place in the World Cup squad, has a better strike rate than Tamim with 123.64.

Among openers worldwide who have played at least 30 T20I innings, Tamim ranks the lowest with his 116.96 strike rate. He is also the only opener in the recent past with considerable experience who has a strike rate below 120.

For example, India’s Rohit Sharma bats at a strike rate of 140.66 whilst England’s Jason Roy strikes the ball at 145.66. Australia’s David Warner is also not far behind with a strike rate of 139.05.

During Tamim’s absence, the other openers have not performed consistently, and that may see the selectors nudge towards picking the veteran left-hander.

Liton also missed the T20I series against Zimbabwe and Australia because of different reasons and could not perform against New Zealand. Soumya struck a fifty in New Zealand and went on to pick up the player of the series award in the 2-1 series win over Zimbabwe but failed against Australia on slow, low pitches.3

Naim held a steady progression throughout these series as he is now Bangladesh’s highest-ranked T20I batsman, but his strike also is a question as he ranks even lower than Tamim.

For now, Bangladesh focuses on the upcoming New Zealand series without Tamim. But after the series, the selectors will have to make a decision, whether to take Tamim along or making the World Cup in UAE and Oman the first where Bangladesh will not have the left-handed batsman in their ranks.