In a shocking turn of events, Tamim Iqbal, one-day captain for the Bangladesh Cricket Team, announced his sudden retirement from International Cricket yesterday, only three months before his team started its ODI World Cup campaign in India.
The 34-year-old former skipper broke down into tears while announcing his decision, ending his sixteen-year-long international cricket career in a press conference. Tamim made his debut in international cricket in an ODI against the Zimbabwe Cricket Team in 2007.
A distraught Tanim told reporters,
“This is the end for me. I have given my best. I have tried my best. So, I am retiring from international cricket at this moment.”
The Bangladeshi Cricket Team, whose campaign for the World Cup begins on the 7th of October in Dharamsala against Afghanistan, has not yet revealed who will take Tanim’s place to lead the team.
One of the leading contenders for the skipper’s position is Shakib Al Hasan, who already captain the T20 matches.
Tamim is a left-handed opener who has managed to score over 15000 runs in his international cricket year, including 25 solid centuries. Additionally, his ODI tally of a whopping 8313 runs is perhaps the highest for any Bangladesh batsman.
Moreover, his 14 centuries in the same format also happens to be higher than his compatriots.
Tanim skipped the one-off test match against the Afghanistan Cricket Team last month with a really stiff back and ended up scoring only thirteen runs in the one-day international outing against Afghanistan on Wednesday in Chattogram. This was his last international outing.
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