Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal has announced a shock retirement from international career in a press conference today, July 6.

Tamim had called for a press conference earlier today, July 6, giving rise to speculations about retirement, especially given his recent history with recurring injuries.

On the eve of Bangladesh’s first ODI against Afghanistan, on July 5, Tamim had come out and said that he was “not 100 percent fit”, but that he would still play the first game to test out his fitness levels.

Neither Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha nor Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan was pleased with the fact that Tamim wanted to test his fitness in an international game. There were reports that he was advised to not play the first ODI and take rest.

However, Tamim did play and scored 13 runs off 21 balls in a losing cause.

Over the last year or so, Tamim has missed more matches than he has played because of fitness issues. There have well-known differences between him and T20I captain and legendary all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

Starting his international career in 2007 as a 17-year-old, Tamim has had a fruitful 16 years on the international stage. He is Bangladesh’s highest run-scorer across formats, with 15,148 runs, and is among the top three run-scorers in each format for Bangladesh.

In ODIs, Tamim has scored 8,313 runs at an average of 36.62, the most among Bangladeshis. In Tests, he is second on the list with 5,134 runs at an average of 38.89, while in T20Is he is the third-highest scorer for Bangladesh with 1701 runs at a strike rate of 117.47.

Bangladesh have not named Tamim’s successor as the ODI captain yet. Shakib leads them in T20Is, while Litton Das in Test cricket, and the responsibility might fall on either on them with just three months to go for the ODI World Cup in India.

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