‘I don’t know’: Bangladesh coach Hathurusinghe on whether Tamim Iqbal is missed in top-order

Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe unable to answer if Tamim Iqbal's absence is affecting team's underperforming top-order. Hathurusinghe admits team hasn't put up complete performance with bat and ball. Last month, Tamim hit out at BCB for being dropped from World Cup squad.

Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe expressed his inability to address whether the absence of Tamim Iqbal is affecting the Tigers’ underperforming top-order ahead of their World Cup match against India on Thursday.

Bangladesh’s struggle in the batting department is quite evident as they continue to struggle to put up competitive scores against top teams in the World Cup.

During the pre-match press conference, Hathurusinghe admitted that they “haven’t put up complete batting performance, or to that matter, complete performance with the ball and bat so far.”

Under such circumstances, Tamim’s absence from the squad once again takes away the spotlight as he has been one of the top batters for Bangladesh in the ODI and has amassed 8,357 runs in 243 ODI outings.

Hathurusinghe was quizzed whether the team felt the absence of the experienced batter in the squad to which he replied, “He is not here, so I can’t answer whether we are missing him or not. Unfortunately, he was not ready the time we were selecting. So obviously his record as a player is good, but the same thing is I don’t know whether we are missing him or not, because we have players that here we have trusting that they will do a job for us.”

Last month, Tamim hit out at the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) after being dropped from the 50-over World Cup squad due to injury concerns.

Shakib Al Hasan called Tamim “childish” and criticized him for putting himself ahead of the team’s needs.