Tamim leaves legacy as captain in question

Within a month after his retirement saga, where he retired and reversed his decision under 30 hours, Tamim Iqbal announced that he has stepped down from his role as Bangladesh’s One-Day International skipper due to his back injury.

The injury also made him unavailable for the upcoming Asia Cup although he ensured that he will return for the following series against New Zealand.

“Tamim has been suffering from this injury for around a year. He will have to totally rest until tomorrow (today), since the treatment on July 28. Then, he will have light rehabilitation until August 11. Then he will have to recover slowly for playing and returning to practice would be on August 21.

“That makes it difficult for him to play in the Asia Cup as the team will leave for the tournament on August 26. So, Tamim said he is available for the New Zealand series later, and then the World Cup,” Bangladesh Cricket Operations Chairman Jalal Yunus said on Thursday.

However, as he bid goodbye with an impressive record as skipper, Tamim has also left his legacy as captain in question, quitting just a couple of months before the event that all his time as the captain focused towards.

Bangladesh have had a fantastic period under Tamim, winning a series away at South Africa for the first time and beating Sri Lanka, West Indies (twice), and Afghanistan, among others. His success rate as skipper is only behind Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, and Bangladesh finished in the top half of the ICC ODI Super League under Tamim’s captaincy.

Yet, what his legacy as a captain will be, is still undetermined. For these last three years, the Bangladesh team has been on a pretty decent run, minus the series defeat to Zimbabwe and the one against Afghanistan recently.

The back end of his tenure, though, is what makes it difficult to call the time under Tamim an overwhelming success. Every process is underway with a goal in mind, and what is a process that loses the leader only months before when it was supposed to deliver the results?

His effort to put the team first, though, admits admiration.

“The journey was great. The results will speak for it. I think I have done well as captain. But I said to Papon bhai (BCB President Nazmul Hassan) that it would have been selfish if I stayed captain. There will be questions if I don’t play a series but hold on to my position. Those who know me, know that I keep the team first ahead of me,” Tamim said in the press conference on Thursday, where he stepped down as skipper.

However, Tamim leaving captaincy is similar to the situation last year, when Mahmudullah Riyad was removed from T20 captaincy by BCB ahead of the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup. The big difference is that Tamim left voluntarily, while Mahmudullah was axed.

The question, though, remains if the events that transpired over the last month or so were actually required. Yes, Tamim still needed to know for sure how bad his injury was, and what the eventual treatment would be. But since he announced his retirement from international cricket, there has been constant drama on his future and the team’s, an environment not conducive to success only months prior to the biggest event in the game.

Whether that was required is the question. Tamim’s decision, following his treatment, which according to him is a ‘hit-or-miss’, seems fine as his availability status being pending through showcase events would be unpleasant to planning for those, and a captain with ensured availability unless for unforeseen events, would definitely provide the team with a better base to work on.

However, getting that only a couple of months before the tournaments is risky, which was seen last year with Mahmudullah’s case as Shakib Al Hasan, who took over, could not take the team past the group stages in both tournaments, although since then the T20 team has achieved a steady state, courtesy of the time they received following.

If, under the new captain, Bangladesh do not manage to gather great results at either the Asia Cup or the World Cup, would that blame be directed at Tamim for leaving his position a little too late? Two months is not the ideal timeframe for a player to prepare to lead their nation in the biggest event of the game, and someone from the Bangladesh team, whether it be Shakib or Liton Das, will have to do it.

The argument might be that both already possess the experience of leading the team, but no other team in India later this year will have to face the situation Bangladesh will. Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam, and Dasun Shanaka – all have been leading their respective sides for quite some time now. Australia’s Pat Cummins will have around a year and England’s Jos Buttler will have little more than that as captain in India, but that is still considerably more than what the new Bangladesh captain will have.

Not just captaincy, but Tamim’s unavailability for the Asia Cup makes the XI selection troublesome too. The Tigers have already found trouble in finding a number seven, and now, with less than a month to go, they need to find a new opener to accompany Liton in the Asia Cup.

Tamim, in his retirement announcement and while resigning from captaincy, said that he put the team first. However, he took and announced the decision, which might turn out to be beneficial for both him and the team, at the eleventh hour, leaving the board and team management scrambling for a replacement with little to no time in hand.

And that is what, probably, leaves a question mark on Tamim as captain, and if the team fails at the upcoming events, that mark might only loom darker on the former Bangladesh skipper.