Tamim wants to take Bangladesh cricket upwards
Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal wants a reversal of fortunes for the Tigers in ODIs and he hopes to build confidence and hunger in his young side to reverse the team's downward trend.
Having taken over the role of captain from the most successful ODI captain of Bangladesh in Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim knows that the starting steps of the endeavor is difficult.
Bangladesh's 2015 season have seen them at their peak as they beat Pakistan, India and South Africa at home in ODI series. That form did not translate in the next few years as the team would have liked.
"Especially in ODIs, 2015 was the turnaround year in Bangladesh cricket," Tamim said in an interview with ESPN Cricinfo. "Our graph has shown a bit of a downward trend, but I want to take it upwards. There will always be a bit of up and down, but we need to return to stability as a team.
"We must stay on the right track in ODIs; we aren't playing much [of the fomat] because there are so many T20Is these days. We need to know what we want to achieve as a team. We have a different team than in 2015. There are a lot of young players. I am sure that if we can tick all the boxes, there's no reason why we can't repeat 2015."
Tamim said that there are a lot of youngsters in the group like Mohammad Naim, Afif Hossain and said that a confidence-boosting series win can turn around their morale.
"When you start winning games, you generate confidence. When we beat Pakistan 3-0 in 2015, we started believing in ourselves a lot more. We could defend a score of 250 or chase a 300-plus score. After beating Pakistan, we believed we could beat India and then South Africa," he said.
Tamim said that guys like Liton Das were hungrier than ever while seniors like Mushfiqur Rahim is an example that any young player can follow.
"Someone like Liton Das now reacts and behaves differently after getting out on 70 or 80. He wants to do well even after making that record-breaking 170 recently. I see a lot of hunger in him. I hope everybody follows the same path.
"Mushfiqur Rahim is another great example. He is never satisfied in any format. He tries very hard when he is not doing well. But when he is doing well, he constantly wants to improve. If this is how everyone thinks, life becomes easier for the captain, coaches and senior players."
Comments