Bangladesh handed MASSIVE setback before ODI World Cup as Tamim Iqbal announces international retirement

Bangladesh cricket team has been handed a major setback in preparations for the ODI World Cup after star batter and captain Tamim Iqbal announced his international retirement on Thursday, July 6. A veteran of the game, the announcement of his retirement came as a shock to the cricketing fraternity as Bangladesh prepared for the World Cup with Tamim in plans. Bangladesh’s 17-run defeat against Afghanistan on Wednesday proved to be the final straw for the batter with Shakib Al Hasan likely to take over as the skipper of the side for the World Cup.

Emotional Tamim bows out of the game

In an interesting development on Thursday, an emotional Tamim called time on an illustrious career that spanned 16 years. He was in tears on Thursday when he announced the same at a press conference he arranged in Chattogram. He bows out of the game with more than 15,000 international runs across all the formats, while also leading the national side at the time of his retirement. He holds the unique accolade of scoring an international hundred in all three formats of the game for Bangladesh.

"This is the end for me. I have given my best. I have tried my best. I am retiring from international cricket from this moment," Tamim said in his farewell press conference.

"Yesterday against Afghanistan was my last international game. It was not a sudden decision. I was thinking about the different reasons. I don't want to mention here. I have spoken to my family members about it. I thought this is the right time for me to retire from international cricket.

"I need to thank a few people, which they deserve. (Pauses, and takes a deep breath). I have always said that I played cricket (long pause, deep breath) to fulfil my father's dream. So I am not sure how much I have made him proud throughout these 16 years of my international career,” added Tammin.

Tamim represented Bangladesh in 70 Test matches and scored over 5000 runs while he scored over 8000 runs in the ODI format. On the flip side in he represented the national side in 1758 runs while his illustrious career included 25 international tons.

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