Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan blamed former captain Tamim Iqbal for the home ODI series loss to Afghanistan earlier this year.
The all-rounder said in the second part of his interview with T Sports that for the first time in his life he had seen a captain announce his retirement after playing the first game of a series.
Shakib continued: “I would say the series loss against Afghanistan was one person’s fault: the captain. After losing the first match we had two more matches… We made a proper comeback in the third match.
“Nowhere in the whole world had I seen a captain after just one match of a series say in an emotional state that he would never play again. I think if he had a sense of responsibility, he would not have done such a thing. It put the team in a very bad position. I think that is why the team took longer to bounce back [from that loss].”
Tamim quit as captain and also announced his retirement following Bangladesh’s defeat against Afghanistan in the first of the three ODIs in Chittagong. However, after some drama the southpaw changed his mind. But now the opener finds himself left out of Bangladesh’s 15-man squad for the ODI World Cup in India.
Tamim’s exclusion, his subsequent video message where he spills the bins about recent events and Shakib’s interview with T Sports TV channel are the talk of the town.
Former captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza also gave his two cents on the issue in a video message on Facebook late on Thursday, saying the situation could have been avoided had Shakib talked to Tamim beforehand.
