While Mashrafe Mortaza has just stepped down from ODI captaincy of the Bangladesh national cricket team, the experienced opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has been appointed as the full-time ODI captain of this side.
During the recently concluded home ODI series against Zimbabwe, the 36-year-old Mashrafe Mortaza made his return to the international cricket after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. While Mortaza-led hosts secured the three-match ODI series after winning the first two games of that series, the senior member announced his decision to step down from the ODI captaincy role ahead of the last ODI game of that series.
Openers Tamim Iqbal (128*) and Liton Das (176) made that final game of that series memorable for the Bangladesh cricket fans as the hosts won that series by 3-0. Though Mortaza has resigned from the leadership role, he has wished to continue his ODI career to make a crucial impact in the team’s future.
Experienced Tamim Iqbal has already led the Bangladesh side in four international matches
Meanwhile, the 30-year-old Tamim Iqbal has been appointed as the full-time captain of the ODI side. While Tamim has played the second most number of international matches for Bangladesh (340 matches), he is the most run-scorer for this team in international cricket history (13,267 runs). In ODI career, Tamim is currently the only Bangladesh batsman to score 7,000+ ODI runs (7,202 runs in 202 matches).
Tamim has led the Bangladesh cricket team in four international matches from 2017 to 2019 – one Test (2017) and three ODIs (2019). However, his team lost in all those matches.
Bangladesh will play their next ODI against the hosts Pakistan on 1st April at National Stadium (Karachi). In this tour, Bangladesh will play only one ODI.
From the middle of this calendar year, Bangladesh will face the real test in ODI cricket through the 2020–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. This league will be the direct qualifier for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 where the final top eight teams out of the 13 teams (including India’s secured place in the CWC 2023 as the hosts) will secure their places for the next CWC tournament.