Bangladesh replace Tamim with Tamim in Asia Cup
Tamim Iqbal, the veteran Bangladesh opener and the former captain in One-Day Internationals (ODI), won’t be taking part in the forthcoming Asia Cup. Tamim is nursing a back injury and didn’t want to rush his return to cricket, hence chose to skip the Asia Cup.
But that’s old news. The latest development is who the selectors have chosen to replace the opener in the Asia Cup.
The selectors, technically, could’ve done without picking a new opener for the Asia Cup. Openers Mohammad Naim and Rony Talukdar were part of the ODI squad for last month’s ODI series against Afghanistan. The management could’ve retained both and played either as Litton Das’s opening partner.
They also had the choice of using Afif Hossain or Mehidy Hasan Miraz as makeshift openers. Miraz has played that role multiple times in ODIs and Afif did it against Afghanistan in a Twenty20 recently.
But on Saturday, in a rather ironic turn of events, the selectors dropped Rony and picked uncapped opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim in the 17-member squad for the Asia Cup, effectively replacing Tamim with Tamim.
The parallels between the two Tamims don’t end with their names. On top of being each other’s namesakes, they are both southpaws, both play as openers and both of them first made a name for themselves as natural stroke players.
With experience, Tamim has now become a more conservative batter. But the opener had first captured the imagination of the Bangladesh cricket fans as a maverick batter who was not afraid to charge down the ground and swing for the fences against the best bowlers in the world.
Tanzid, similarly, first grabbed eyeballs in the 2020 Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. Tanzid was an important member of Bangladesh’s Under-19 World Cup winning squad, scoring 166 runs at a strike rate of 101.21.
It took Tanzid a little longer to make it to the national team squad compared to his U-19 teammates Towhid Hridoy, Shoriful Islam and Shamim Hossain.
His potential was known to all. But his numbers with the bat in domestic cricket wasn’t good enough to warrant him a call up to the national team.
The 22-year-old finally forced the selectors to take notice of his talent in the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held last month in Sri Lanka.
Tanzid opened the innings for Bangladesh ‘A’ team four times in that tournament, scoring half-centuries in three of those games.
However, it was not just the number of runs that help him stood out. Tanzid scored his runs at a brisk strike rate of 116.99, which was the highest among all batters in the competition who scored at least a 100 runs.
The fact that he scored his runs in Sri Lanka, where nine out of the 13 matches of the Asia Cup will be taking place, also worked in his favour.
Tanzid’s list-A stats aren’t great, as he averages just 28.88 in 45 innings with a strike rate of 82.80. In comparison, Naim averages 46.94 in 83 innings and has a strike rate of 87.29.
Despite the sub-par record, the selectors have put their faith on Tanzid, picking him for the Asia Cup, which is effectively the preliminary squad for the World Cup.
If Tamim ‘senior’ returns in the ODI series against New Zealand and keeps fit till the World Cup, Tamim ‘junior’ most likely wouldn’t make it in the World Cup squad no matter how well he performs in the Asia Cup.
But a good showing in the Asia Cup could earn him a place as one of the backups. And with an injury prone Tamim ‘senior’ in the squad, there is always a chance that Tamim ‘junior’ could once again replace his senior namesake in the Bangladesh team.