Tamim leaves for London to play in T20 NatWest Blast
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh hard-hitting opener Tamim Iqbal left Dhaka for London to play the T20 NatWest Blast 2017 for the English County Club Essex Eagles yesterday.
Following his jaw-dropping performance in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy last month, Tamim was offered to play for the Essex. The left-handed batsman made 293, the third highest, with one century and two fifty-plus scores in just four matches of the tournament at a staggering average of 74.
The left-handed opener said he will attempt his best to play for his county club so that he could justify their selection.
I have played good cricket for the last few months. I dont know how much I could do there, said Tamim Iqbal.
But I will try my utmost best to fulfill for what my team chose me, Tamim told media at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport before boarding for London via Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
The 28-year-old stroke-maker was scheduled to join the team on Saturday ahead of the battle of the Bridge trip Beckenham, Kent on Sunday. But he could not take off on Friday for ticket complexity. Now he will reach at earlier hour of Sunday if everything is okay.
It will be the second time for Tamim to play in any English county club. He represented Nottinghamshire for five matches in 2012. This time the south-paw signed for eight matches of the T20 Blast.
The opening batsman said that the condition will not be problem for him but benefited a lot to play in English condition.
We played there some few days ago. So the condition will not be problem, Tamim told the media.
I could gain experience from there as I will play there for one month, he thought.
Tamim had played 50-over games in Champions Trophy and will play T20 games in County Cricket. Thereafter, he will next play longer version at home yard against the top-flight Australia after returning home from England.
He said that there will be no problem for him as he will get enough time to prepare himself for the next month home series against the top-notch Australian side.
There will have too many times in my hand when I will back home from the County Cricket. Within this period I could prepare myself for the next Australia series, he said, adding Australia series will be interesting. We will be have an advantageous position as we will play at our home turf.
There will have a little bit problems in everywhere. We have no control over it. We could do what we should do. We should focus on our own preparation.
Last year Tamim played for Peshawar Zalmi in Pakistan Super League (PSL). This year he got offer from the new franchisee of Benoni in Global T20 Cricket League in South Africa. But he said that he turns down their proposal owing to BPL.
I got offer from Global T20. Last year I played for the (Peshawar Zalmi) team, whose owner (Javed Afridi) bought this new franchisee team. He invites me to play for the team. It is nice to me that the owner himself offered me to play for his team, he said.
But that time BPL will go on. BPL is more important to me than PSL. And so I am not agreed to play, he signed off.
On the other hand, Essex head coach Chris Silverwood believes that he will prove to be an excellent addition.
Tamim has shown how good a player he is in the recent Champions Trophy competition. As a batsman he is capable of being destructive and that is reflected in his career strike rate, Chris Silverwood said.
We identified the opening berth as an area we wanted to strengthen and we are thrilled to get a player of Tamims calibre into the club. He will bolster the side for eight games and we look forward to his arrival, Silverwood also said.
