Tamim Iqbal bids farewell to T20 cricket

Tamim Iqbal, the captain of Bangladesh's ODI team, has finally said goodbye to Twenty20 cricket. He announced this decision at the end of the ODI series against West Indies on Sunday (July 17).

Tamim Iqbal has been away from the T20 format of cricket for a long time. He did not play in the World Cup held in the United Arab Emirates last year. Then he said that he wants to stay away from T20 for at least six months. Now finally the captain of Bangladesh ODI team has announced his retirement.

The opener announced this decision on his Facebook page. He wrote, "Consider me retired from T20 Internationals from today. Thank you all."

Tamim played his last international T20I match against Zimbabwe on March 9, 2020, in Mirpur. Since then, Bangladesh has played several series including the T20 World Cup.

Tamim was not part of any of the teams and requested to not be considered for selection for the World Cup as he felt the other openers deserved to keep their spots as the team was doing well leading into the T20 World Cup. 

Sometimes due to injury and sometimes due to family reasons, the 33-year-old has kept himself away from this format. 

For Bangladesh, Tamim has scored 1,601 runs at an average of 24.75 with a century and six half-centuries in 64 T20Is and is the third-highest run-scorer for Bangladesh in this format. 

He is the only Bangladeshi batsman to score a century in T20 format.