Pondering on what ifs

One of the recurring themes of Bangladesh's World Cup campaign has been the disappointing performance of the one batsman most fans would have been looking at to set the biggest stage alight for the Tigers. Tamim Iqbal averaged 57.06 between the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, but on the biggest stage, he managed 235 runs at an average of 29.37 from eight games. A player who takes great pride in performance and the legacy he will leave behind in Bangladesh cricket, the meagre returns frustrated Tamim throughout the event, even though it was his most successful World Cup in terms of runs scored. Yesterday, as the Tigers prepared to make their way back from the UK, Tamim spoke to The Daily Star's Sakeb Subhan about his disappointment and the need to move past it. The following are excerpts of the interview:

The Daily Star (TDS): Are you disappointed with your performance in the World Cup?

Tamim Iqbal (TI): Yes, very disappointed. In the sense that, after what happened in 2015, I have been preparing myself for 2019. In these four years I've had a lot of success. And then, even in Ireland I did really well. But I think that as soon as the World Cup started, I took a lot of pressure on myself. Just thinking that I don't go back to 2015 again. It is very easy for anyone who reads this to come and ask me why are you thinking like this, you have scored so many runs. But only I know what is going on inside. My nightmare was going back to 2015, what happened in 2015, how I suffered and my family suffered.

TDS: By that you mean the outside pressure after you dropped a catch against England and also some inconsistency with the bat?

TI: The outburst that happened was very new for me then. I couldn't handle it at that time. And then how the family suffered, and all of that. I knew very well that the World Cup is a tournament that makes even those who do not follow cricket start following; that's how big the event is. I think that is what killed me at the beginning. I took a lot of pressure on myself; I wanted to prove a point… not prove a point, I wanted to do really well.

And in these four years, the success I got, I never tried to prove to anyone. I just went there, batted and things happened. But here, I put so much pressure on myself to succeed that it hampered me. I was actually looking to get  a score in the first two games. That's very important for me. The 62 I scored [against Australia], if I could have scored that in the first two games, it could have been a different thing mentally. I think that is why I find it disappointing. The trolling, the criticism is part of my life. I need to accept it. I think that I have dealt with it much better than I did in 2015. What bothered me was myself. I lost to myself.

TDS: What bothered you more, that you couldn't score runs or the pressure you put on yourself?

TI: I took a lot of pressure to score runs. I had to score… I had to score. If you try too hard to do something, it doesn't happen. I really am not someone who has a bad tournament and will then come and give excuses, but actually I was very unlucky in this tournament. There were three to four dismissals where I couldn't do anything. The Cottrell runout, the three chop-ons. It had nothing to do with my technique. There were one or two dismissals which I regret… England and New Zealand. The first game [against South Africa] was a very good delivery, the last game [against Pakistan] was a good delivery. Surprisingly, though I didn't score runs, I actually batted really well. It wasn't as if I was being beaten or struggling. Whenever I batted, everybody thought – myself included – that this is the day probably. I went there and played a couple of nice shots and then it just happened. The good thing is I don't take the past innings with me when I am batting. I started panicking more because I was getting out after one mistake. I actually lost patience with myself. I wondered what the hell is happening. I talked to Neil and he said you cannot do anything. After the first two games I went to [batting coach] Neil [McKenzie] and said 'let's shoot my batting and see if there is anything technical'. Then he told me 'I wish I could tell you something', there was nothing. He said 'it's basically the same, you've done this'.

There are two positives from this. One was the processes that got me success, the way I batted and the processes I did before the game, I did exactly the same. In such situations, there will be people giving you all kind of advice: 'Go and attack', 'if this is not working you should bat like this or that'. That is the worst possible thing I could have done. Because after not scoring in two matches, if I went down the wicket to the first ball, or swung my bat around and then got out, then that would have the worst possible thing. The best thing I did was I never changed. I batted exactly the same way when I scored a lot runs and when I didn't score a lot runs – from game 1 to game 8 – I batted the same way.

TDS: When you say the same way, do you mean the changed Tamim who aims to bat till the 40th over?

TI: The aim is to bat deep. Sometimes, with the way I start… I will take time when I start the innings. When I am batting on 40 or 50, I make up the time I took. I have a lot of confidence in myself, the team, the coaching staff have a lot of confidence in me. It's not like I have done it for 10 games; I have done it for 50 games. Unfortunately I never got to that stage in this World Cup. People will say that there are a lot of ifs and buts, but it does not bother me because I know what I was trying to do. The other positive is that in my bad times, if I am averaging 30, I am pretty happy.

TDS: A lot of criticism has come because of your changed role, from swashbuckler to someone who bats all the way through.

TI: My role also has changed and, though it is a World Cup, I batted exactly the same way for the last five years. The way I batted actually helped the team to win. It doesn't bother me what people think. Changing myself because some people think a certain way is the worst possible thing I could do. What I do is not easy. My point is, if something has worked for me for a number of years, why should I change it? The people who understand cricket will understand what I went through and the people who don't understand cricket, will always criticise. And I am completely fine with it; I think I have come out of that space in 2015. There were high expectations, for me too, because I took myself to that level. It hurts a lot, but I need to come out of it.

TDS: You say that you have lost to yourself but also that the frustrations did not hamper you in the middle. Where did it affect you?

TI: It didn't affect me when I was batting. It affected me before the game – two days before the game. When playing a match, what you're doing in the middle is important but there are other important things. How mentally relaxed you are a day before, how positively you are thinking, all this adds to your batting. If you are not in a good mental space when you are going out to bat, it sometimes definitely hurts you and definitely affects your game. I took a lot of pressure to perform. It was not about social media or people writing about me, it was me who was the problem.

TDS: Did the dropped catch of Rohit Sharma add to the pressure?

TI: The catch drop didn't bother me either. I dropped the catch and felt bad for a couple of overs and I was up and running in two overs' time. I was going into the hot position to field. I was cheering when wickets were falling. I was probably the first one to go to Mustafizur when he took five wickets. Dropped catches are part of cricket. It was an important catch, I understand. A lot of criticism came after the dropped catch. Going forward, I will be taking a lot of good catches and I will also be dropping catches.

TDS: With three wins out of eight matches, how would you rate Bangladesh's performance?

TI: I thought it was a disappointing performance. We definitely had our moments and our chances. I could answer that question by saying that it was a very positive tournament, we pushed the best teams to the limit, but I think that we as a team have come out of that position. Just playing well is not our target. Playing well and winning games is our target. If you think in that way, we are number seven. If South Africa win we become number eight. So you cannot say it was a great campaign.

Bangladesh's World Cup ended with a crushing defeat against Pakistan at Lord's on Friday. It was an anticlimactic finish to an otherwise fantastic run by the Tigers in the showpiece event that had started brilliantly for them with a fabulous victory against South Africa more than a month ago.

Interestingly, the harsh reality after Friday's chastening defeat is that we are no longer talking about how well the Tigers have played but how badly they have signed off.

The Pakistan game was a dead rubber for Bangladesh. The only thing at stake for the Tigers was to win the game and finish fifth, just beneath the four semifinalists. It could have been a logical conclusion after a campaign that saw the Tigers beat West Indies and Afghanistan apart from that near-miss against New Zealand and two closely-fought battles against Australia and India respectively. There was also a washout disappointment for the Tigers against the Lankan Lions.

But those were blurry amidst the punishing defeat by Pakistan, a team that also blew hot and cold throughout their own campaign.

It was arguably only the second of Bangladesh's nine league games where they were outclassed by the opposition after that heavy England defeat.

They bowled badly and fielded even worse, allowing Pakistan to post a commanding 315. It was a tough task to chase down that total on a slow wicket. The Tigers fans were still hoping that it was possible considering that the Tigers had scored three 300-plus totals in the tournament so far against quality attack.

It would be cruel to say that the batting unit, the most impressive of the three departments, did not try, or that they threw their wickets away. The truth is that they were outsmart by a fantastic young Pakistan bowler -- Shaheen Shah Afridi. The left-arm pacer took six wickets and earned all of them.

His immaculate line and length, subtle changes of variation and pace and those searing yorkers were too hot to handle for the Tigers. Shaheen turned up with his golden arm whenever the Tigers tried to wrest the initiative from the firm grip of Pakistan.

Shakib Al Hasan tried hard. He was out there to complete his seventh fifty-plus knock in eight completed games before being dismissed by Shaheen.

It was a game where Bangladesh's weaknesses in two departments -- bowling and fielding -- were exposed for the umpteenth time. After the game it came under the scanner, which is quite logical.

But the emotional override after that defeat was not all that rational, especially when the criticism targeted Tigers captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who took only one wicket in the whole tournament. There was a lot of speculation about Mashrafe's participation in the last game against Pakistan. Thankfully, he played what was his last World Cup game, which was a logical decision.

The fans perhaps expected him to make an announcement of his retirement in that game. But he preferred to buy some time to make his decision, which is also understandable. He said it was his last World Cup. He has served Bangladesh cricket on those bad legs with extreme dedication and is the man behind taking Bangladesh to a position of strength in the one-day format.

Mashrafe is a born fighter. We can be critical about his performance in the World Cup. But he also deserves to make his own decision.

What every stakeholder of the game now needs is to allow enough time for the overflowing emotions to die down.

After the Champions Trophy semifinal defeat against India in England in 2017, Shakib was having a chat with a few Bangladesh reporters ahead of the post-match briefing. Asked what areas Bangladesh needed to improve on to be more competitive, Shakib said: "We are all emotional at the moment. I think we should allow it to subside and then sit together so that we can make that decision rationally."

It was as true then as it is now. The reality is that Bangladesh's glorious chapter with Mashrafe is all but over. It is time to take a deep breath and plan for the 2023 World Cup.

Choose a new leader wisely, think of a new set of coaching staff if necessary and harness a combination most suited for Indian conditions where the next World Cup will be held. It will only help to dream big.