Same old fear for Tamim Iqbal

Tamim Iqbal could not make his comeback to international cricket after a long hiatus for injury a colorful one because of Fazalhaq Farooqi.

The rookie Afghan appeared as a nightmare for the Bangladesh One-Day International captain, who got out against the young left-arm pacer in all three matches of the series.

Farooqi is the clear winner of the three bouts as he won three in a row. In the first two matches, Tamim was trapped Leg Before Wicket, and in the third, the bowler hit timber.

Tamim was dismissed in similar fashion throughout the series as the left-handed opener failed to handle the incoming delivery from the left-armer.

Ironically, Tamim and Farooqi played for the same team in the recently concluded Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League, where the stalwart had adequate chances to play against the rookie Afghan in the nets.

Maybe that worked the other way around. Farooqi who was the net bowler for Punjab Kings and Chennai Super Kings in the two previous Indian Premier League seasons, deduced the Achilles heel of Tamim and exploited that during the series which ended on Monday.

After the third ODI, Tamim accepted that the bowler got the better of him, and said that he needed to work on that particular type of dismissal.

“I’m disappointed (by my performances). Especially, to get out to one bowler. There is no shame accepting that he got the better of me. I feel there’s something to work on. But just because I got out to pretty similar deliveries in all three innings, I will not say that I have to do a lot of work because that is an area where I score a lot of runs too. Maybe I have to get a little better.

“As an international cricket, you have to keep on working to get better. I am more disappointed that I couldn’t contribute to the team than the manner I got out in,” the Bangladesh ODI skipper said in the post-match press conference on Monday.

Tamim previously ignited Zimbabwe’s Brian Vitori by tagging him as an ‘ordinary bowler’ and faced the consequences by getting dismissed to him in back-to-back innings.

A former international cricketer, who also faced similar fate against one particular bowler, told The Business Post that sometimes the situation turns into a psychological battle.

“When a batsman is going to face the same bowler who got him out multiple times, an extra cautiousness or alertness works in the back of their mind. It might be a challenge for the batsman to score runs against that particular bowler. It’s a psychological duel,” told the player seeking anonymity.

“Tamim was not escaping from him (Farooqi), rather he was trying to handle him in a better way today. He was trying to make adjustments, but he got out right after the end of powerplay”, told the former cricketer.

Tamim mounted the pressure on him by not taking any singles against Farooqi for six straight deliveries. He played five deliveries against Farooqi in the first over and scored three runs against him.

In his second over (third of the match), Tamim played the last three balls and could not score. In his next over Tamim also faced the last three deliveries which produced no run.

Liton played all the 12 deliveries from Farooqi in his next two overs. Though he struggled initially, Liton later hit two boundaries against him in the same over.

In the next over, which was the 11th of the Bangladesh innings and right after the end of first power play, Farooqi got Tamim at the strike again and bowled his customary delivery which brought him success against the Bangladesh skipper twice previously and got the same result.

The newly appointed batting coach Jamie Siddons, who worked as the head coach previously pointed out a fault in Tamim’s footwork.

“Tamim wants to straighten up his front foot. It won’t happen really quickly, but we are talking about long-term. If he is going to play for the next three or four years, he has to straighten his front foot up a bit. He will have a lot more success,” the Australian told the reporters on Saturday.

Tamim’s comeback to international cricket could be a fairytale affair as all three matches took place at his hometown Chattogram and the wickets of the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium are some of the finest batting tracks in the country.

The left-handed opener had above 400 runs by his name in the recently concluded BPL where he hit a century at Chattogram, that raised the bar even higher.

But all were turned into a nightmare by Farooqi, and ironically, it was Tamim who explained who is this bowler and why he is in the Dhaka team after the BPL players’ draft.