Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan came down hard on Tamim Iqbal for not being a team-man and refusing to be flexible. On Tuesday, the Tigers named their squad and the left-handed Tamim missed the bus for the mega event on Indian soil.
On Wednesday, Tamim dropped a video on his official Facebook page and slammed the BCB for playing ‘dirty’ games with him. The southpaw said that he was asked by one of the top officials to bat in the middle order rather than opening the batting.
Unhappy with the approach, Tamim refused the proposal and left it up to the board to take a call on his selection. After the startling revelations from his teammate, Shakib mentioned that players should keep aside personal millstones and contribute to the best of their potential for the team.
“I am sure someone who is authorized had said this (to Tamim). I am sure whoever has said it, he thought of the team. A lot of things go into building a combination for a match. So if someone has said this to him, was it wrong? Or we can’t make such a proposal? I am just going to tell someone that you can do whatever you want. Is the team first or the individual?” Shakib said in an interview with T-Sports.
‘WHAT IS WRONG IN THAT?’
Shakib cited the example of Rohit Sharma, who started his career in the middle order before starting to flourish as an opener from 2013 onwards. Shakib, who is set to play his fifth 50-over World Cup for Bangladesh, called Tamim ‘childish’.
“Someone like Rohit Sharma built his career from No. 7 to opener, scored 10,000-plus runs. If he sometimes bats at No 3 or 4, would it be a big problem? It is totally childish. It is my bat, I will play. No one else can play. A player should bat at any position for the team. Team first. It doesn’t make any difference if you have made 100 or 200, and the team loses. What can you do with personal achievement? You want to make a name for yourself?” he stated.
“You are not thinking about the team at all. People don’t understand these things. Why was the proposal given to him? It was for the team. What is wrong in that? You are a team man when you agree to such a proposal. Unless you are thinking along those lines, you are not a team man. You are playing for individual records, success, fame, and name. Not for the team,” Shakib added.
Tamim has hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons over the last few months. After announcing his retirement in an emotional press conference, the left-hander reversed it. Later, he stepped down as the Bangladesh ODI skipper and also pulled out of the Asia Cup, co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Tamim returned for the Tigers in the ODI series against New Zealand where he scored 44 runs in the second match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
Amidst all the controversies, it remains to be seen if Bangladesh’s all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs makes a comeback in ODIs in the future.