Tamim Iqbal has requested for a break from cricket. The 30-year-old opener had gone to the Bangladesh Cricket Board in early August to seek time off, and ESPNcricinfo understands that it has now been approved. As a result, he will miss next month’s one-off Test against Afghanistan and the T20I tri-series which follows.
This follows the BCB’s decision to give Shakib Al Hasan a break – following a request from the player – during last month’s ODI series against Sri Lanka. They had also allowed Shakib time off during the 2017 Test series against South Africa.
Tamim, who will leave the country in the next few days to work on his fitness, will be available for Bangladesh’s next assignment, a tour of India in November when they play three T20Is and two Tests.
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In his letter to the BCB, Tamim asked for a break after he had gone through a tough time in the last three months. Apart from an ordinary World Cup campaign in which he scored only one fifty, and a disastrous ODI series against Sri Lanka, in which he also led Bangladesh, Tamim was subjected to a lot of criticism on social media.
During the 2019 World Cup, Tamim spoke about the demons of the 2015 tournament, in which he made only 154 runs in six innings, and was subsequently abused on social media. Tamim said those memories affected his preparation for this year’s event in England and Wales, leading to a sequence where he was bowled in six consecutive ODI innings.
After his match-winning 141 in the BPL final in February, Tamim had a rough time in the ODIs in New Zealand before bouncing back superbly in the Tests. He then continued his good form during the tri-series in Ireland, scoring crucial runs before slowly going off the boil in the World Cup.