Five Proper Bowlers In ODI Format Is A 'Must Have', Believes Tamim Iqbal

Bangladesh finally registered a win on their tour of West Indies when they defeated the hosts by six wickets in a match reduced to 41 overs per side due to wet outfield. After taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, captain Tamim Iqbal stated that he would continue to play with five proper bowlers in the 50-over format.

"There were a lot of debates whether we play one extra batsman or one extra bowler. If we play one extra batsman, it would have been a safe call but you have to take chances in international cricket. We have to go with either one batsman or one bowler. For me, in the ODI format, you have to have five proper bowlers and I hope all the batsmen take responsibility and finish the game," Tamim was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz after the match.

"In international cricket, if you take the easy option, there are times when it will not be successful and you have to take chances. Today, it could have been a different thing altogether (if we had lost) and you could have asked me why we played with one less batsman. But all went well," added Tamim.

In Bangladesh's successful chase of 150, veteran batter Mahmudullah top-scored and applied finishing touches with an unbeaten 41. Tamim was pleased with Mahmudullah getting some runs under his belt and pointed out that him getting scores of 25 or 30 can be valuable for Bangladesh in future.

"As far as Riyad's (Mahmudullah) batting is concerned, where he bats... if you take away today's innings, then lots of those 25 or 30 runs that he scores become very important. Whenever there are one or two failures and we go to statistics and see it is 25, 28 or 30 runs, but there are times when those 25 or 28 runs are very valuable.

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"If you take the South Africa series into consideration, he did not have the chance to play a big innings. I think taking these things into consideration, we should look at him in a different way and sometimes he does the job that never gets appreciated. If we are a bit more educated in this aspect, then some players will have less pressure."