Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal said on Wednesday that he might miss the entire fifth edition of Bangladesh Premier League if it took him to get completely fit for next international series against Sri Lanka. Bangladesh are currently scheduled to hosts Sri Lanka for a full-pledged bilateral series in January before playing a tri-series one-day international involving the former world champions and Zimbabwe.
Tamim returned from South Africa early after a muscle injury forced him to miss the third and final one-day international of the just-concluded three-match series against the hosts and also ruled him out of the two forthcoming Twenty20 internationals.
Comilla Victorians icon Tamim was given two weeks of rest which would make him miss at least the first two matches of BPL, starting on November 4 in Sylhet.
‘My message is clear. The National team is my first priority. I will not play until I get fully cured… I don’t think medical staff also will support the idea of playing any match until I get fully cured,’ Tamim told reporters at Mirpur.
‘We all know BPL is an important tournament. But we have some engagements for national team too. My priority is to play for the national team always,’ said the left-handed opener, the most successful batsman of the country in all three formats.
Tamim hoped the performance of national players in South Africa would not adversely affect their form in BPL, the only domestic Twenty20 tournament.
‘I don’t think it will be difficult for national players,’ said Tamim.
‘We all know we could not play to the best of our abilities. People take lessons from everything. For us the biggest learning in this tour was that we all, say, batsmen or bowlers, could realise our lacking…we should not forget this. We have to work keeping this in our head,’ added Tamim.
Bangladesh are in middle of one of their poorest series ever where they are yet to register a win.
It is not result but the yawning gap between the two teams that has been reflected in the series has left Bangladesh more concerned about their future.
The Tigers lost the first Test by 333 runs before suffering their first innings defeat in four years in the next Test. They lost the three ODIs respectively by 10 wickets, 104 runs and 200 runs much to the shock of their fans.
Tamim, who played only one Test and one ODI in his injury-plagued series refused to give any excuse for their underwhelming performances.
‘We all knew condition would be difficult as we did not go there for long period,’ said Tamim.
‘But I don’t want to use it as an excuse. I think, as a team or individually, we could not play according to our abilities. If we cannot do that it does not matter whether we are playing at home or abroad.’
Tamim laughed off reports that highlighted an incident in the nets before the first ODI in Kimberly to suggest a row between him and head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe.
‘Before I clear things something needs to happen. Board sent a letter to media stating that nothing had happened. For me it is ridiculous,’ said Tamim.
‘If something had happened and people inflated five per cent things to 25-30 per cent I would have accepted. But if zero per cent happened and people inflate it, I have no option but to laugh. I don’t have any problem with him [coach]. Let alone him, I don’t have a problem with anyone,’ he said.
-With New Age input
