Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal believes the absence of India’s regular captain MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in the upcoming three-match ODI series in June will be an added advantage for the home side.
It has been widely reported in the media that both the key players – Dhoni and Kohli – might be rest for the short series in Bangladesh keeping their long tour to England in mind.
“It will be of help to any side playing against an Indian side which do not have key players like Dhoni and Kohli. But this doesn’t mean that we will be relaxed in the series,” said Tamim yesterday after the first day of national team’s practice session since the ICC World Twenty20 ended in April.
“They will have other players who also play the game very well. We (Bangladesh team) will have to play our best cricket to do well - let it be any opponent,” Tamim added.
Close defeats, irresponsible batting and poor catching skills covered a huge portion of the Tigers’ busy first quarter this year which started with the full series against Sri Lanka before they moved on with the Asia Cup and the ICC World Twenty20.
The seniors of the team were blamed behind the dismal performance and they were highly criticised too. The southpaw Tamim also had a quiet time with the bat but he thinks “There are ups and downs in cricket.”
“One should also take the off form positively and think how to overcome the bad patch rather than only thinking that you are having a bad time. I am trying my best to over come it and working in the nets on my mistakes. Hope I don’t repeat the mistake I made in the World Twenty20,” said the 25-year-old.
“We have a very important series (against India) coming up. I will be happy if I am able to contribute for the team in that series,” added the cricketer from Chittagong.
The national side members returned to practice after a break of almost 45 days and Tamim said, “I think we needed this break. I hope we will come up as a team again, find and mend the mistakes we had made and try not to repeat those in the India series. We can expect a positive result from the series if we play up to our potential.”