'It was bad shot selection'
A lifter from pacer Ravi Rampaul took the edge and flew over the slip cordon and thus Tamim Iqbal got his first boundary; a fortuitous one. But that bit of good fortune did not stop the left-hander to think otherwise with his innings, instead he was outrageous with his stroke-play which even forced the experienced West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul to ask him whether he was playing a T20 game.
But the batsman, who started the Test match on the back of three consecutive hundreds under his belt in the National Cricket League (NCL), defended his style of batting when he was faced with a volley of questions in the post-day briefing regarding his dismissal which made Bangladesh's already stiff target of avoiding the follow-on that much tougher. Tamim however admitted that it was poor shot selection which denied him not only of finishing the day unbeaten but also of the magical three-digit mark.
“He asked, 'Are you playing a T20 game?' I replied that your bowlers are bowling and I'm hitting the ball. So I told him, I can't bat like you and he then said, neither can I,” informed Tamim when asked about what Chander-paul told him during his flashy innings.
Tamim however said that his approach was right: “I am disappointed. I don't think any batsman would want to get out in the 70s. But I am not feeling too bad, because my approach was right.”
“I started well and I was playing as I normally do but I didn't want to get bogged down. I was leaving the good balls when Sammy (Darren) was bowling outside. It was bad shot selection. The open leg-side field played a part also. It was a bad decision because it wasn't the right ball to play that shot to,” he added.
The Chittagonian pointed out the 'disciplined approach' behind his success in the National Cricket League matches this season, which invited the question of whether he maintained the approach during his 71-ball 72.
“The last time I made around 80 here and there was a period when I batted for 15-20 overs to score 10 runs. It is probably how one should bat in a Test match but everyone has an individual plan due to different mentality. I wanted to bat long, so that it would help the team. I also wanted to keep my aggressive approach intact. I think I was thinking properly, but the shot was wrong,” explained Tamim.
“There are two types of batsmen. Some score runs and get set, and some spend time in the crease to get set. I am from the first group, I am settled quickly when I see runs on the scoreboard. I don't want to let go of my strength, but it is true I have got out at strange times and playing strange shots. It is natural for such things to happen because I am a stroke player. Still, it is not an excuse for getting out in this manner,” he added.
He also said that there was no instruction for him from the dressing room after West Indies piled up a huge total on the board.
“I am usually told to bat in my way, and nothing much is told to me. If you see my shots, most of them were there to be hit. I came out to hit Sunil Narine twice but none of the boundaries was a bad shot or forced. Rampaul bowled a good ball, but I have said it often, I would hit the ball which is in my range,” said Tamim adding that the wicket was fantastic for batting and the bowlers didn't have much help from it.
Tamim might have defended his style of batting but the reality was that Bangladesh were in trouble because of a wrong batting approach from
the top order and the
left-hander also admitted that the loss of just 'one wicket would have been beautiful for us'.
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