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Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal has said that he will not take part in the T20 World Cup slated for October-November in the Gulf states of Oman and the UAE.
Tamim has, however, ruled out retirement from this format of the game, attributing the decision to his lack of match-time in the past few months.
In a video posted on Tamim’s social media page, the left-hander said that he didn’t take part in the last 15-16 T20Is due to injury, and he's not going to come in suddenly and take place of the young players who did well in those games.
“I’ve just talked to the board president, Nazmul Hasan, and chief selector Minhajul Abedin. I told them that I don’t think I should be in the World Cup squad,” Tamim said in the video.
“The biggest reason behind this decision is the game-time. I was not available for the last 15-16 T20I matches, and the guys who played those matches did really well. So it won’t be fair if I come suddenly and take their place. So you won’t see me in the World Cup,” Tamim added.
The Bangladeshi opener missed the Australia series due to a knee injury, and before that he missed the Zimbabwe series as well. He played his last T20I back in March 2020 against Zimbabwe in Dhaka.
Tamim has been under huge criticism for a long time for this lean strike rate in T20Is. Despite that, he was one of the players who get an assured place in the T20I set-up of the Tigers.
“I want to make one thing clear that I’m not retiring from T20Is, I’m just skipping the World Cup for now. I think it’s a fair decision, and the young players deserve to play in the World Cup as they are more prepared than me,” Tamim said, claiming the decision was right from his heart.
In the absence of Tamim, the onus of opening the game is on Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim, who have been doing the job for quite a good time now.
Bangladesh is all set to play a five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting September 1 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, and Tamim is also going to miss this series as his knee injury is yet to heal.