Cricket / Tamim Iqbal announces retirement from T20I Cricket

Cricket | Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal has announced his retirement from T20 International cricket. Tamim Iqbal announced his retirement from T20 International cricket soon after leading the team to a 3-0 series win against the West Indies in Guyana. Bangladesh cleaned up West Indies by winning the last match by four wickets, with Tamim winning the Player of the Series award.

After the match, Tamim Iqbal posted in Bangla a short message on his official Facebook page saying, "I am deemed to be retiring from T20 Internationals today. Thank you all." This puts an end to the speculation over the past several weeks whether he will play T20 cricket or not. He took a break from this format in January this year and will no longer play in this format. He had said at that time that he was going to take a six-month break from T20Is.

On January 27 this year, Tamim Iqbal said, "My whole focus will be on Tests and ODIs. We are preparing to qualify for the World Test Championship and 2023 World Cup. I am not thinking about T20 Internationals in the next six months. I hope the players will do well enough that the team won't need me in T20s, but if God forbid the team or the cricket board needs me and I am ready, I will think about it."

Left-handed batsman Tamim Iqbal, who made his debut in T20 International cricket in the year 2007, played the last T20 match in March 2020. He scored a total of 1758 runs in 78 matches of this format, in which his best score was 103 runs. He finished his T20 career with 7 half-centuries and a century at an average of over 24 and a strikerate of over 117. He hit 189 fours and 45 sixes in this format.