Hard-hitting opener Tamim Iqbal said he did not change his batting approach to score a breezy 158 against Zimbabwe to secure the three-match ODI series on home soil. Of late, Tamim was going through a rough patch and many felt he had changed his batting style to achieve that sterling performance. “To be honest, my batting approach was the same. I didn’t change my mindset,” said Tamim.

“I did it in the way I have been batting for so long. I did not change anything,” he told the media at the team's hotel in Sylhet yesterday. Tamim’s slow batting approach faced vehement criticism by all quarters. But the left-handed batsman silenced his critics with the jaw-dropping knock. “I didn’t charge out to any bowler before my hundred. I didn't even defend anything. But I got some  boundaries at the beginning and that helped,” the southpaw said.

“There are some balls which came to my toes and I just flicked them for fours. I have played all the cricketing shots at my disposal,” he added. “The important thing is that I found gaps, which I didn’t find in the last several matches. Since my strike rate was almost 100, everyone thinks I changed my approach. But nothing was changed. I followed the same method,” he explained.

When asked whether he had done anything different to come out of his bad patch, Tamim said he had done nothing different to end his run-drought. “In the match, I didn’t do anything different. If I would have tried anything different, I obviously would have tried it first at the net session. But I didn't get out at the net seither. I did some adjustments to tune my batting and for the betterment of my game,” the 30-year-old said.

However, Tamim thanked the team management and his teammates for having full faith in him. He later dedicated his milestone century to them. “A lot of the credit goes to the team management because they always have faith in me. I was batting well in the Test matches and at the nets. And I would know that something big was coming from me,” the left-handed batter said.

“I also want to thank the board. The board president called me ahead of the match and told me that something that was very inspiring,” he also said. “A few people were hard on me when I wasn’t in form. But what is important for me is that people, teammates, team management, and the board had faith in me. I, therefore, dedicated my century to them,” he said signing off.