Tamim back to scoring as Khulna find first win

Tamim Iqbal, who had been struggling to find his form since returning from his injuries finally made an impactful innings for his side Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League 2023 in his hometown, Chattogram.

The Khulna opener scored 60 off 47 balls and was unbeaten till the end that ensured his side’s triumph over the Rangpur Riders. He hit four fours and two sixes in his innings.

Tamim had been struggling with his injuries since 2021 when he had hurt his thumb that caused him missing a lot of playing time. Then again, ahead of the last India series, he was ruled out of the ODI squad due to groin injury.

While fighting with bad form and injuries, Tamim announced his retirement from international T20s ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 that came as a shocker, but he said it was time for the juniors to take the responsibility to represent the county.

When he returned with the bat in this edition of the BPL, he could not do well as his team suffered three consecutive losses. Apart from the former Bangladesh skipper, Khulna does not have big performers in the squad as no one other than Azam Khan saw a bright innings in the last four matches this season.

In the match against Rangpur, most of the job was done by the bowlers, especially their Pakistani bowling duo Wahab Riaz and Amad Butt, who took seven wickets between them to restrict the opposition on 129.

Coming to chase the lower target, Tamim and Munim Shahriar started their innings cautiously. After Munim was out on 21 in the sixth over, Tamim built a match winning partnership with Mahmudul Hasan Joy who kept rotating the strike while Tamim was taking care of business on the other end and reached his half century in the fourteenth over.

Tamim, however, is the highest run getter of BPL. He has played 83 matches in the franchise league for different teams and has scored 2737 runs averaging almost 40, which is better than any Bangladeshi batter in the tournament. His nearest competitor Mushfiqur Rahim has scored 2631 runs but has played 20 more matches.

Khulna can now hope to continue their winning run as the woes are off Tamim, and he finally made it back with a match winning performance which will help him to gain confidence.