Tamim Iqbal
Bangladesh opener and leading run scorer for Tigers in all three formats, Tamim Iqbal, on Tuesday put his faith on youngsters despite they explicitly failed to perform for the national team in recent series.
In the recently-concluded Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka, where the Tigers reached the final and suffered a narrow defeat against India, young players like Soumya Sarkar, Mehedi Hasan and Taskin Ahmed, Nazmul Islam and Abu Hider failed to deliver expectedly while Liton Das and Mustafizur Rahman did well only occasionally.
Liton gave team the platform with his 19-ball 43 against Sri Lanka while Mustafiz nearly turned the corner in the final with a brilliant wicket-maiden at a very crucial stage.
‘I believe that they will deliver some great performances in the coming days…maybe they are not getting the result they want. But I wish they will get it soon and contribute to the national team,’ said Tamim, who scored 154 runs in the tournament.
Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah starred for the Tigers in the tournament where no one gave them any chance after a series loss in the preceding series against Sri Lanka.
Tamim also hailed the work ethics of young players and suggested the worker harder than the seniors at times only to obstructed by the game plan that often revolved around the experienced campaigners.
‘The young players in the national side work a lot. And sometimes they work harder than the senior players. Only thing they lack is the result. Maybe it is because of the game-plan,’ he said.
He also said that if the youngsters can contribute more to the national side then it will be helpful for the seniors and eventually help Bangladesh to be a great team.
‘If they [young players] start contributing alongside four or five of us [senior players] then we will be able to become a great side,’ said the left-handers.
He was please to see at least some young players contributing to their team in the ongoing Dhaka Premier League and hoped they would carry this form to the national team once they got the opportunity.
‘I heard from the players that this year wickets were really good. And if the youngsters scored
more runs then it would’ve been great. But it is not like they didn’t score at all. Bijoy [Anamul Haque] and Shanto [Nazmul Hasan] scored some runs,’ said Tamim.
Anamul scored highest 687 runs so far in the league while Nazmul made 636 runs to take Abahani closer to winning the title.
Source: New Age.