Dhaka, Jan. 26: Tamim Iqbal has long been a thorn in India’s flesh and on Tuesday, reaffirmed that quality with an astounding assault on Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s bowlers with his team still 311 runs in arrears on the third day of the second Test here.
Speaking on the effort later, Tamim said because it came against a big team like India, it was much more special. “Scoring a century against India is a different feeling. I have always wanted to score big against India. They are the world number one side now and I am very happy that I was able to get a century against them.
“Of course, this is my best century,” added Tamim, who now has two hundreds in his 14 Test matches. The earlier one (128) came against the West Indies at St. Vincent midway through last year on the Tigers’ successful tour of the Caribbean.
Tamim said coach Jamie Siddons had told him to play his natural game without any pressure when he walked out to bat this afternoon. “Our coach told me to go out and play my natural game. I did just that. Every player has different ways of playing and plans his game. I think this is the way to go for me,” said Tamim, who hit 151 off 183 balls, including getting to his century from just 101 deliveries, making it the quickest Test ton by a Bangladeshi batsman.
Tamim said the pitch was playing well and that Bangladesh would set out to bat through the day on Wednesday.
“The wicket is getting better. We will try to bat the whole day tomorrow and see how many runs lead we can have,” he said.
Tamim also credited former bowling coach Salahuddin with tips on how to tackle the Indian spinners.
“He told me the ball would not turn very much and to use the sweep. If you see my wagon-wheel, you will see I got a lot of runs with that shot, going across the line to the ball,” the opener said.
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