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Injury-free Tamim ready to fire for Dhaka

Staff Correspondent
18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 18 Jan 2022 02:29:38
Injury-free Tamim ready to fire for Dhaka
(From the left) Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, and Arafat Sunny pose with the jersey of Minister Dhaka on Monday in Dhaka ahead of the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League, starting on January 21 – BCB Photo

After recovering from his recurrent injuries, Tamim Iqbal is ready to fire for Minister Dhaka in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League, where he will rub shoulders with Mahmudullah Riyad and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in the dressing room after a long time since Mashrafe stepped down from one-day captaincy in 2020.

The left-handed opener opted out of the ICC T20 World Cup in 2021 as he felt that he would deprive a junior player who had been filling in for his absence.

Tamim also missed out on the Twenty20 international series against Pakistan after the T20 World Cup due to an injury he sustained during the Everest Premier League in Nepal.

Tamim last played a T20I for Bangladesh on March 9, 2020, and he was not in the national contract for T20Is.

But the Bangladesh ODI captain said that he is fully ready to fire for the capital’s team.

“I am lucky that I got the chance to play two matches (Independence cup) just a few days back. If you are talking about my recovery from injury, I am now in very good shape. My fitness is OK. I am optimistic about making a good start in BPL. I have done all those necessary things to do well. I have done my part,” he said in the jersey launching ceremony at Minister Group’s office in Dhaka on Monday.

Dhaka franchise was previously held by the Bangladesh Cricket Board as the consortium that got the ownership rights failed to meet all the conditions, and in the night before the player’s auction, BCB took over.

Razzak Khan Raz, chairman of the Minister Group, said, “We have now taken over this franchise from BCB, and we named it Minister Dhaka.”

T20 captain of Bangladesh, Mahmudullah, will lead the Dhaka team too, despite Mashrafe, the most successful captain in BPL history, being in the team.

Mahmudullah is not feeling any pressure of handling stalwarts like Tamim and Mashrafe in the same team.

“I am not feeling any pressure. The biggest positive side of my team is we have a bunch of experienced cricketers and a bunch of match winners. But we have to play well as a team,” he said.

The T20 captain was also out of action for a long time after he retired from Tests. But he played in the Independence Cup, where he scored a half-century and picked up a couple of wickets as well.

The all-rounder is confident of bowling more in BPL, which he did not in the T20 World Cup.

“We normally have a bunch of off-spinning options in our team. Shuvagata is my prime option. If the team requires, I will definitely bowl,” he told the reporters.

Mahmudullah is also not worried about the long break of Tamim and Mashrafe from competitive cricket.

“The class is there. That covers everything,” said the Dhaka captain.

He also said that too many cooks will not spoil the broth in the Dhaka team.

“Too many cooks can not spoil the broth here because in this team I am the only cook,” said Babul.

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