In his latest column for Daily Mail, England fast bowler Stuart Broad has praised Bangladesh senior opening batsman Tamim Iqbal, for giving his best to prove his credentials at the top, adding he is capable of playing against a competitive bowling line-up, in the forthcoming 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
Interestingly, the Nottingham-born Broad feels the left-handed batsman Iqbal becomes dangerous at the top for any of the opposition on his given day following his brilliant approach to go after the bowlers with an attacking instinct.
“Tamim Iqbal is an incredibly dangerous player at the top of the order who, on his day, can destroy any opposition attack,” Broad wrote in his column for Sportsmail, where he was asked to pen down his thoughts and eventually names of the respective players to watch out for, in the global multilateral event taking place in his country.
The 30-year-old Broad expects Iqbal is one of the players to watch out during the ICC’s mega event jointly hosted by England and Wales from June 1.
“[Iqbal is] a fluent strokemaker and utterly fearless from the first ball,” Broad mentioned.
The tournament will kick off at The Oval when hosts England will take on resurgent Bangladesh side which has jumped to the sixth position in the latest ICC ODI rankings after replacing Full Member Sri Lanka.
It becomes pertinent to add on, the Tigers are ahead of Sri Lanka followed by Pakistan and the West Indies.
Picking the Bangladesh as the underdogs, Broad feels Mashrafe Bin Mortaza-led side is laced with quality spinners which according to him could prove fruit on spinning surfaces while adding they have a better close view at Bangladesh.
“They have some top-class spinners and on turning wickets they will be extremely difficult opponents,” Broad revealed.
Last year in October, Alastair Cook-led England was left shell-shocked when they were humiliated by Bangladesh, in the second Test at Sher-e-Bangla stadium when hosts levelled the two-match Test series by 1-1.
Broad, who bowls with right and bats with left, has stated Bangladesh will be a threat for the rest of the teams and it would be interesting to see how they will go against formidable England at the placid surface of The Oval.
“We’ve learnt to our cost what a good team Bangladesh have grown into over the years and they will definitely pose a threat in the tournament.
Broad in his column has termed England as one of the favourites as he also picked other seven players to watch out for during the 18-day tournament in English conditions.
The lanky fast bowler picked leg-spinner Adil Rashid from his country followed by fast bowler James Pattinson for Australia, Mohammad Amir from Pakistan and all-rounder Angelo Mathews from Sri Lanka.
Considering the fact, how Indian slow bowlers have bowled in the home conditions, Broad picked two sensational bowlers with the likes of ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and left arm orthodox spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
Among batsmen, he named South African batting prodigy Quinton de Kock and Kane Williamson from New Zealand to score the bulk of runs.