Tamim Aims For 350+: On Wednesday (August 10), Tamim Iqbal stated that in order for Bangladesh to succeed in the format, they would need to alter their batting strategy and concentrate on consistently scoring 350 runs. Tamim’s team scored 303 runs and 290 runs in the first two games, but it was insufficient as Zimbabwe won both games to take the series.

Despite scoring only 259 runs in the last match, the visitors managed to dismiss Zimbabwe for 151 runs in 32.2 overs, preventing a clean sweep. In spite of the fact that several other teams have often exceeded the 350-run threshold, Bangladesh’s highest total in 400 matches of the format is still the 333 for 8 they scored against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2019.

“I am not saying we want to score 350 in our next game but that’s the goal we have set because if I think too far ahead and if I think about the World Cup, especially in India the par score will be 300 and the games changing from what it was apart from if you are playing in Mirpur or in same venue in India where you can score 260 to 270 and still win games but most of the venues are probably 290,300, 310 and we are aware of it and I am sure in the coming days you will see us trying to reach what others are reaching.”

Tamim continued, “I’m not thrilled with my own batting since I didn’t capitalize on my series openers.” “Despite the fact that I have scored a few runs, I am not at all satisfied since it is very tough to locate wickets of this nature because, no matter how great the surface, there is always some help for the bowlers.

“A 60 or 50 wasn’t enough on this track because after the first 10 overs it became so pleasant to bat on; the difference between the two sides was that they each had four hundreds while we had none. If you directly ask me if I’m happy or not, I’m not.

“Whenever we lose we talk about improvement. No doubt we should have won this series and we cannot put any excuse. We didn’t play to our potential and Zimbabwe was a better team in the series there is no doubt about it and the full credit goes to Zimbabwe. Talking about improvement now became a boring thing because we keep saying that we need to do this and do that but now what I want to say is something probably you will like it or you will not like it but please think if I make any sense or not,” he said.

Although they lost the series, Tamim insisted that they were still a “serious” and “great” ODI team and that they would take what they could learn from the situation. “Yes, we lost the series, but despite that, we are a serious ODI side, and even now, I would say we are a magnificent ODI team. However, the graph won’t always go upwards because you have to go down before you go up. I frequently state that ranking is meaningless, therefore this was an excellent lesson for us. In this series, Zimbabwe was a superior team than us, thus on the day when both teams play well, the game is won “he remarked

“Look if we had lost to India or Australia or any top-ranked team like we did against Zimbabwe probably there won’t have been so many questions. If Kohli or Steve Smith played like this we would have accepted that they are top players and played like this and we didn’t have anything to do.

“In the opening two games, the way Raza and Chakaba and Kaiya batted proves that we have a lot to improve in ODI cricket. I am not taking away any credit from them as they played unbelievably well and from my team’s perspective I can say that we still have a lot to improve because if they can do it against us then certainly other teams can do that as well against us. If you think about Ireland [the next opponents], they are also very much capable of doing similar things. These things are a lesson for everyone,” he concluded.