I felt Shoaib Akhter would kill me: Tamim

Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal said he thought he will be killed the first time he faced former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhter.

Tamim, doing a series of Live shows on his facebook and Youtube channel, had three former Bangladesh captains Naimur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud and Habibul Bashar as guests on Sunday. The effort from opening batsman Tamim with the show is to keep people entertained as the country has been observing an unofficial lockdown since March 26 due to coronavirus pandemic.

The former Bangladesh cricketers and Tamim in the show shared many stories from the past and at one point were discussing Bangladesh’s Test match against Pakistan in Multan. Shoaib did not play the game in Multan but was in top form in the first two Tests of the series taking 13 wickets.    

Khaled Mahmud sharing his experience from the series said with a laugh, “Even today people do not believe me when I saw I didn't see the first ball that Shoaib Akhter bowled to me.”

Tamim adding to the conversation said, “It is not just you, it happened to a lot of people."

“I have played many fast bowlers, and played bowlers bowling at 150 km per hour but there was only one time and it was when I faced Shoaib Akhter for the first time. That day I felt like he would kill me. He was so scary,” said Tamim with a laugh.

Bangladesh opener Tamim faced pace legend Shoaib twice, once in Kenya during a tri-nation tournament and another time in 2010 Asia Cup.