‘Harder you try, the worse it gets’

Bangladesh are already knocked out of the World Cup after their agonising 28-run defeat against India at Edgbaston on Tuesday. And with just a single match left for the Tigers -- a dead rubber against Pakistan on June 5 at Lord's -- Bangladesh's opener Tamim Iqbal is yet to have an impact in the mega event.

Tamim got starts in almost all the seven completed matches of Bangladesh in the World Cup but could not really turn them to big scores. Tamim, who has had a problem with his scoring rate throughout the tournament, scored a highest 62 off 74 balls at a strike rate of 83.78 against Australia in a game where the Tigers were chasing a mammoth 381 for five posted by the five times World Champions.

However, Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes backed his star opener even after his below-average performances in the World Cup citing that luck did not favour him so far.

"He would have loved to have scored more runs. But he's been very wholehearted and tried his very, very best. Sometimes it's not to be. You know, he played some great shots today [on Tuesday against India]. I thought today was going to be the day, but sadly, it wasn't to be. And that's cricket. Sometimes the harder you try, the worse it gets," said Rhodes after Bangladesh's game against India.

Tamim had also dropped India opener Rohit Sharma on nine early in the innings only to see the destructive right-hander to go on and smash a 92-ball 104 that helped India's cause. Rhodes was there to back him up again, when the topic came up during the press conference.

"I've watched a lot of cricket over the years and played a lot of cricket, and you know that any drop can be costly. I didn't know how costly it would be. I was hoping he'd hit another one up in the air a little bit sooner. Rohit Sharma, what a wonderful batsman he is in world cricket. You give guys like him a chance or Kohli a chance, and you may well pay the price,

"Again, the person who dropped it was Tamim, and he's got one of our -- he's developed into one of our safer pair of hands in the outfield, so it was a little bit of a surprise, but he's human, and we're all human." said Rhodes.