The last time Mohammad Naim played a One-Day International match was against Sri Lanka two years back in 2021. He also lost his place in the T20 team after the 2021 T20 World Cup. And after two years, the opener has been again called into the ODI squad for the Tigers’ ODI series against Afghanistan starting on July 5.
Naim made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in 2020, since then he has played only two ODIs for the Tigers’. In the first, he did not bat, and in the second and his last against Sri Lanka he only made one run.
After the match against Sri Lanka, Naim was axed from the ODI squad but was regular in the T20s. He had scored 815 runs in his 35 matches averaging almost 24. But, after the 2021 T20 World Cup, the left-handed batter lost his place in the opening slot.
The batter had a tough time in the Bangladesh Premier League 2022, as he had to bat in at number eight. Batting outside of his position, he struggled and eventually was excluded from the national team.
The 23-year-old batter was waiting for his time to prove himself and Dhaka Premier Division League 2022-23 gave him the opportunity.
The opener scored 932 runs playing 16 innings in the tournament for Abahani Limited, to become the highest run scorer of the tournament. Out of those 16 innings, he made 10 fifties and converted one to a hundred.
In the final matchday of the DPL, the match between Abahani and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club became the title decider of the tournament as both the teams were tied in points entering the match, and Naim played a brilliant innings of 68 in the final which took his side over the target set by Sheikh Jamal DC.
His bright performance in the DPL impacted his return to the ODIs.
Even though he has had an amazing season so far, it is still to be seen if the batter would get a chance into the playing XI or not. Skipper Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das are regular openers for Bangladesh for some time now, and they are likely to open every match unless there’s an injury or anything of that sort, because the selectors and the coach wouldn’t want to experiment with the combination ahead of such an important schedule as they have Asia Cup and World Cup ahead.
However, the batter can be happy for he has got his call after all the troubles he has been through.
