Tamim Iqbal, the captain of Bangladesh’s one-day international team, got off to a good start but was unable to capitalize on it since he was forced to leave the field early during today’s match against Afghanistan at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
Tamim, who reported yesterday that he is “not at one hundred per cent” owing to an ongoing back injury that caused him to miss the solitary test match against the Afghans last month, was only able to muster 13 runs off of 21 deliveries.
The southpaw, on the other hand, had opened his account with a stunning cover drive off of bowler Mohammad Saleem, who was making his first appearance in an ODI today.
Both Tamim and Liton Das kept their guard up against the strike bowler of Afghanistan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, who was able to get some movement off the pitch since it had some grass covering it.
During the opening stint, Farooqi was able to beat the outside edges of both Tamim and Liton. He also only allowed two runs to be scored off of his first two overs, with one of those overs being a maiden.
When Tamim punished Farooqi for some additional width with a well-timed boundary through point, it seemed as if he was beginning to get into the rhythm of things. Tamim, on the other hand, was unable to avoid turning the ball over to Farooqi when his effort to play the ball into the deep third only resulted in the ball receiving an edge behind to the keeper.
The openers for Bangladesh had a hard time timing the ball, and Liton was riding his luck when he top-edged a pull shot off of Saleem’s delivery. Fortunately, the ball landed safely in the outfield, which allowed the hitter to score two runs.
After Tamim was removed from the game, the in-form batter Najmul Hossain Shanto got off to a good start. He smashed two back-to-back boundaries to welcome bowler Azmatullah Omarzai into the attack. As a result, Bangladesh advanced to 48 for one after 10 overs.