Tamim Iqbal is the Tigers' batting pillar who scores every single run for his country, never ponders of making records; only dreams to take Bangladesh cricket to a position where every cricket fans of the world will sit back & enjoy a good cricket match as we do while watching matches of big teams like Australia, England or South Africa. But unfortunately this man never gets the selfless love he deserves. Recently, some trolls flashed up in the social media during a short bad patch of four or five matches which haunted him & made him question; "Does he really deserve this?” As always he replied back with his bat to the critics by playing ‘Tamim-strokes’ & scoring runs for a team about which he dreams to go a long way.
If you are a Bangladeshi cricket fan, you must have seen the video called "Play Like Tamim Iqbal", which was released during the world cup made by three passionate Bangladeshi cricket fans who are current IBA students. They made it just for their hero, Tamim Iqbal. They made it to remind some replica fans "The Tamim we forgot" & to remind Tamim that he should "Play like Tamim Iqbal". Tamim watching the video got overwhelmed with emotion the same way he got badly hurt to see those cheap & dirty trolls that included his family as well. Later those 25 runs against India in Quarter final off twenty five balls with four fours of Tamim style at MCG showed that he's back on the track, playing those Tamim-strokes showed it is just time that we found ‘The Tamim’ back. Meanwhile the apparently arrogant (termed by many) Tamim found those three fans & invited them for dinner at his place where they expressed their mission behind that masterpiece clip. Since then there was no looking back: he scored 132 off 135 balls to help make a huge total of 329 & beat Pakistan by 79 runs in first ODI of the series. He ended the series as Man of the series scoring a total of 312 runs averaging a record 156, leading the team for a Banglawash against a tough Asian team like Pakistan. A double in the Test series breaking the past record of Bangladesh's highest innings by Mushfiqur Rahim was like a cherry on the cake in his mission to salvage his form.
Someone must need to have concrete guts & self-belief to come down the track & hit a big six to reach a double. But this is the ‘tornado Tamim Iqbal’ we knew since 2007. He was well aware that he is the one who will break this 200 record of Mushfiqur Rahim when the keeper batsman reached this milestone in 2013. Tamim, who had always been in good touch in Test format believed & used to share this with those who are close to him. Now he also believes that someone like Mushfiqur, Shakib or Mominul can break his record anytime soon.
Tamim currently holds many of Bangladesh's individual batting records like most centuries, most runs, most fours & highest individual innings in ODI, Test & T20I for Bangladesh. He now has 8173 international runs, 13 centuries & 49 fifties in his stat book. Tamim was the only representative of Tigers to play at Lord's for ROW XI in a historical cricket match, MCC XI vs. ROW XI; which was played to celebrate 200-years of Lord’s Cricket Ground – the Home of Cricket. When he attended the pre-match party of that match & the host was calling his name, there were huge cheers roaring and shouting; "Tamim, Tamim, Tamim", that was one of the best moments he ever had; he expressed once. Tamim shared the dressing room with big names & legends like Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, M Muralitharan and KP Peterson in that match. He was there representing Bangladesh just because he deserved to be there. It was a proud & huge moment for Bangladesh, which we fans can cherish for lifetime.
A blockbuster series is knocking at our door as India is coming with its core heroes like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma. And this time our heroes are also well prepared & confident after a decent break. Tamim has always been a worry of fear to the India for his destructive attitude from the very first ball of an innings. Along with the no.1 all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, in form keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim & bunch of young guns, Tamim can lead the batting order to a formidable total which can create a lot of discomfort for our favorite opposition.
At this point of time, all Tamim can presume from Tigers' fans is to get a favorable support, not just to wait for another troll season but also to stay connected with him & his team by cheering for their every four & sixes.
My subtitle is, "Support our opening warrior from your heart, he'll never disappoint you!"
Write Credit: Mohim Uddin Khan
