Thank you, Tamim

Tamim Iqbal, after two years of indecision and drama, has finally announced his retirement from Twenty20 Internationals, and he does deserve a thank you for that.

“Consider me retired from T-20 international from today,” Tamim wrote on his verified Facebook page on Sunday after leading Bangladesh to a 3-0 One-Day International series win over West Indies.

Tamim last played a T20I in March 2020 against Zimbabwe, and since then has been in the discussion for every T20I series Bangladesh played, but ultimately, he decided against playing.

The left-handed opener also opted out of the T20 World Cup last year and at the start of this year, asked for a six-month leave from the format.

That leave was due to end in August, but Tamim made his call before he was forced to do so.

The Bangladesh ODI captain deserves plaudits because he understood that his style was better suited to ODIs and Tests, and thus did not turn his retirement from the format into a soap opera, rather called it a day before he was forced.

Tamim, despite being constantly criticised for him playing too many dot balls, boasts of the country’s only T20 century, which he hit against Oman in the 2016 T20 World Cup.

While his game could not match the modern requirements of the game, Tamim would still go down as one of Bangladesh’s finest T20I batsmen. He scored 1758 runs at an average of 24.08 in this format, alongside a strike rate of 116.

Tamim’s retirement now allows Bangladesh two series, one against Zimbabwe and one the tri-nation series in New Zealand, to sort out their opening worries.

As the questions of whether Tamim will play or not are not looming anymore, they have to display clarity and make the hard call as nobody has been able to succeed in this format as openers in the last two years.