Hard-hitting opener Tamim Iqbal silenced his critics after hitting a well-composed knock of 158 against Zimbabwe in the second match of the three-match ODI series at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (SICS) yesterday.

After having 23 innings without a century, Tamim brought up his ton in ODI cricket for the first time in almost two years. Before yesterday's century, he had last reached three figures against West Indies in Basseterre in July, 2018. Incidentally, the hundred against West Indies had helped the Tigers seal a 2-1 series win away against the West Indies.

In the current series, Tamim scored 24 in the first match from 43 balls (strike rate 55.81) and in the second match 158 runs from 136 balls (strike rate 116.17). That tells everything about his transformation. This was his 12th century in ODI cricket. The opener was experiencing a patchy form, which was evident from the slow pace of his batting. He was criticised from all quarters irrespective of the support from the team management, players, media, and his fans. But he came out of his shell to score a classy

158, eclipsing his own highest individual innings of 154—the highest individual score of any Bangladeshi batsman in ODIs. He clubbed 20 boundaries and three maximums in his brilliant knock.

Tamim touched a new milestone when he broke into the elite club of 7,000 runs as the first Bangladesh batsman. The left-handed batter was 84 runs away from the milestone before the match. At the moment, Tamim has amassed the highest total of 34,878 runs, including 13,196 runs in international cricket in all formats. Of them, he scored 7,074 runs in ODI cricket.