Batting with a purpose has worked for me: Tamim Iqbal

28-year old Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal has recently reached the milestone of 50 Test matches when he opened the innings for hosts against Australia at Dhaka. The left-handed batsman scored 71 and 78 in two innings, and his side -Bangladesh went on to register their maiden victory over Australia by 20 runs.

The Chittagong-born cricketer has scored 3847 runs so far in whites. In ODIs, since playing the match winning cameo against India in the 2007 World Cup, Tamim has come a long way, scoring 5743 runs from 173 matches at an average of 34.38.

Twin 70’s in the 1st Test v Australia

ESPN Cricinfo caught up with the Bangladesh opener recently, On the importance of his twin 70’s at Dhaka, Tamim said “It looks very important now, after seeing how the wicket was behaving. I tried my best after we lost some early wickets in the first innings. Me and Shakib (Shakib Al Hasan) had a good partnership. Those 70 odd runs in both the innings look very crucial at the end. I would have loved to get at least one hundred but then that’s cricket.”

When asked about the victory at Dhaka, and he rates the win as the best, he said ” I won’t say it is the most important victory, but it is right up there. Beating Australia anywhere is not that easy. The way we played cricket against them is something to watch.

The opener has played some vital knocks in the last two years, when asked if he made any changes, he said: “I have been scoring runs in last two and a half years, the change is mentality, the focus is important.”He puts a lot of importance on training and says that training is the key. Batting with purpose has worked out well for me. He said that he is trying to take it easy, concentrate. “When I get a start, I try to make the most of it” a confident Tamim said.

The city has produced great batsmen: Tamim

Talking about his birthplace, the southpaw said that the city has a history of producing great batsmen but it hasn’t been the same in the last 20 years. “Chittagong has a history of producing great batsmen. But unfortunately, I have spent most of my time in Dhaka. We need to produce more cricketers in Chittagong, like we did 20 years back”. he added.

His goal:

“We have been playing a better cricket in the last two years. The coming years even will be better, My goal is to be the best batsman in the world. The first target is to I need to get into the top 10 rankings. I haven’t achieved that.”