Opener Tamim Iqbal said on Thursday he was ready to go under the knife to fulfil his dream of becoming the first Bangladeshi to score a hundred for his country in the upcoming World Cup.
Tamim will leave Dhaka today to meet Australian orthopaedic surgeon David Young on December 29 as an MRI recently revealed that his meniscus on the left knee had been damaged.
Tamim doesn’t want to keep any stone unturned in order to get rid of his knee injury immediately which prompted him to skip the Dhaka Premier League and leave for Australia so that he can be fit before the World Cup.
According to Bangladesh Cricket Board’s chief physician Debashish Chowdhury, this kind of injury can only be treated thoroughly through operation though conservative measures allow the person keep going for the time being.
Tamim said during an interview with a private TV channel that he was mentally prepared to lie down on the operation table without any hesitation so that he could participate in the ICC World Cup.
‘The forthcoming World Cup is my biggest priority,’ said Tamim on Thursday.
‘I am expected to meet Dr Young on the morning of December 29. And after the check-up, he will tell me what to do.
‘If it requires surgery, I will do it as early as possible because I just can’t miss the World Cup. I want to play this World Cup by any means,’ he said.
BCB sought the appointment of the seasoned Australia sports surgeon David Young on December 29 and January 3 so that the opener could undergo the surgery on one of the two days.
Tamim’s immediate operation will give him enough space and time to gear himself up for the biggest 50-over cricket extravaganza. As the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup gets underway from February 15 in Australia and New Zealand.
So, if Tamim goes under the knife between December 29 and January 3, he will get almost six weeks of rehab time.
Tamim added that he was ready to go after his dream of scoring a ton in the World Cup without any kind hesitation. So, he needs his left knee to be operated on, which will surely give him a mental boost.
‘Nowadays my only aim is to score a century in the World Cup. It will make me the country’s lone cricketer to claim the three digit mark in the biggest cricket festival in the world.’
‘I learnt through Sakib recently that no Bangladeshi ever scored a century in the World Cup and after that I started developing the ambition of filling up the void during the Tigers campaign in the World Cup,’ said Tamim before pointing towards his injury that had made him suffer. ‘I am not feeling any pain while batting but it resurfaces whenever I start running either to pick up singles or two’s or doing the fielding sessions makes me feel quite uncomfortable.
‘I want to leave a mark in this World Cup through my performance and in order to fulfil that I will have to get rid of my knee injury.
‘I want to start the process of overcoming the injury at the earliest and for making that to happen wasted no time after the MRI revealed that my meniscus was damaged,’ said the dashing opener.
Tamim also admitted to deliberately changing his batting style and opting for a more solid approach in the beginning rather than starting to blaze immediately after arrival, making him look vulnerable.
‘Certainly these days I have started to value my wicket even more as I am learning to know its price,’ he added.
‘I am keen not to give it away cheaply and If you look at the batting graph of the last two years it will show this change was gradual before developing as batting principle’.
-With New Age input
