Tamim reluctant to take ‘unnecessary pressure’ ahead of World Cup

Dhaka – Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal on Wednesday said he is not taking too much pressure on him thinking much about the World Cup scheduled to begin on May 30 in England.

“I’m not thinking anything about what I can do in the World Cup. If I think I have done many things in England, it’ll create too much pressure on me. I just know that the World Cup will be a very difficult event for us. It’ll be more difficult if we dream to do a lot. I have to start from scratch,” Tamim told reporters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium after the day’s practice session.

Tamim played seven One-Day Internationals in England and scored 355 runs at an average of 50.71 featuring a century. But, the left-handed opener said he is not fascinated about what he did in England in the past.

“I don’t want to take unnecessary pressure on me. If I target to do something, I somehow fail to achieve that. So, I don’t want to say what my target in the biggest cricketing event is. I have other things to worry about. I need to play the role correctly what the team will give me. My main goal in the World Cup will be to ensure a good start for the team,” he said.

The southpaw, who has been consistent with the bat since the last World Cup, also said chasing 300-plus scores will be a big challenge for the Tigers in the cricketing extravaganza.

“We aren’t accustomed to chasing down the target like of 340 or 350. At the same time, we know that we have to chase it in the World Cup. We have to work it out before going to Ireland, where I’ll be playing five matches, which are really important for us,” Tamim further said.

“We have to be mentally ready to chase the big targets. At the same time, we need to bowl well if we want to restrict our opponents to a total under 300. I think a total of 300 runs is chase-able in England. We need to get prepared for that. If you look back to our history, we didn’t chase these sorts of big totals much because where we play most the time is not perfect to score 300 or more,” the southpaw also said to the media.

Tamim believes Bangladeshi openers should step up in order to chase the big totals in the World Cup. According to him, Soumya Sarkar and Liton Das got enough chance to get prepared for the big stage.

He said the World Cup is the golden opportunity for them to show the world how good they are.

Bangladesh team will leave Dhaka on May 1 for Ireland where they will play a tri-nation series involving the hosts and West Indies. After the series, they will fly to England and play their first World Cup match on June 2 against South Africa.UNB