Tamim Iqbal became the first Bangladeshi player to cross the 5000-run landmark in T20 cricket on Tuesday.
The left-hander scored an unbeaten 54 from 51 deliveries to guide his team Comilla Victorians to victory against Chittagong Vikings at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
Tamim’s innings contained four boundaries and two sixes and he never looked troubled as the required run rate was below six.
He has so far played for Chittagong Kings, Comilla Victorians, Duronto Rajshahi and Chittagong Vikings in the BPL and Pune Warriors, Wayamba United, Wellington Firebirds, St Lucia Stars, Peshawar Zalmi and Nangarhar Leopards for T20 franchise leagues in other countries.
Congratulations to @TamimOfficial28 for scoring 5000 runs in T20s!#RiseOfTheTigers pic.twitter.com/WDSvYewkgB
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) January 29, 2019
The 29-year old, who is one of the top batsmen in Bangladesh cricket history and has the most number of runs for Bangladesh in Tests and ODIs, also has an impressive T20 record.
The left handed opener has scored 5029 runs from 187 T20s at an average of 29.58 and a strikerate of 118.27.
The Comilla Victorians batsman is second on the list of most runs scored in the BPL with 1629 runs from 54 games with Mushfiqur Rahim leading the way with 1684 runs and Mahmudullah following closely behind at third with 1605 runs.
Though, Tamim has played fewer games – 54 – compared to Mushfiq (68) and Mahmudullah (74).
Tamim has had a decent BPL so far scoring 271-runs from 10 matches at an average of 30.11 and a strikerate of 107.5 and a high score of 72 against Khulna Titans.