Tamim Iqbal, the star cricketer for Bangladesh, met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and decided to postpone his unexpected retirement from the game.
Tamim Iqbal reverses retirement: A day after leading his team to a 17-run loss in the opening of a three-match one-day series against Afghanistan, the experienced opener announced on Thursday that his international career will end immediately.
However, on Friday, Jalal Yunus, director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), told the AFP news agency that Tamim had a change of heart after speaking with Hasina at her home in the capital city of Dhaka.
Tamim Iqbal has reversed his plan to retire, according to Yunus.
He will, however, take a six-week break to get back in shape. In the previous six months, he had been under physical and mental stress, which had an impact on his performance, Yunus continued.
Tamim, meanwhile, captioned a photo of himself with Hasina on his Instagram account with the phrase “Can’t say no to the Honourable Prime Minister.”
BCB President Nazmul Hassan sharply criticized the batsman after Tamim’s news conference on Thursday, questioning his professionalism for playing the match despite admitting he wasn’t fully fit.
The 34-year-old player met with the prime minister hours after the selection of wicketkeeper-batsman Liton Das as the captain for the remaining games of the series against Afghanistan. Liton claimed Tamim’s resignation caught the team off guard earlier in the day.
None of us could have predicted this choice, he told reporters. “He gave a lot of his time to the Bangladesh team for so many years.”
Tamim Iqbal: A Storied International Career Marked by Records and Milestones
Tamim’s international career got off in 2007 with an ODI game against Zimbabwe. Later that year, when Bangladesh defeated India in the World Cup in the West Indies, he gained instant notoriety after scoring the game-winning half-century.
In 241 ODIs, he averaged 36.62 and led Bangladesh in runs (8,313) and hundreds (14) scored. He ranks third among active cricketers in terms of runs scored, after India’s Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Before retiring from that form in July 2022, Tamim amassed 5,134 runs in 70 test matches, the second-highest total for Bangladesh, and added 1,758 runs in 87 T20 internationals.