ZIM vs BAN: Defeat against India or Australia wouldn’t have been questioned –Tamim Iqbal after ODI series loss

ZIM vs BAN: Tamim Iqbal's Bangladesh won the third and final ODI by 105 runs, but lost the three-match series 1-2 after initially conceding an unassailable 2-0 lead.

Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal admitted that the Tigers should have won the ODI series against Zimbabwe. On Wednesday, July 10, Bangladesh defeated the hosts by 105 runs to win the third and final ODI at the Harare Sports Club, but ended up losing the three-match series 1-2.

After going down 1-2 in the T20I series, the visitors failed to put their best foot forward even in the 50-over format. Tamim, who scored 19 runs off 30 balls in the last match, said that Zimbabwe was the better of the two teams.

“When we lose only then talks of improvement come up. No doubts that we should have won the series, we can’t give any excuses. We didn’t play to our potential and Zimbabwe was the better team and the credit goes to them,” Tamim was quoted as saying.

The 33-year-old, in the meantime, also said that a lot of questions wouldn’t have been raised had Bangladesh faced a top-ranked team like India or Australia and not Zimbabwe. Tamim was of the opinion that people wouldn’t have been overly critical had the Tigers lost to a brilliant knock from Virat Kohli or Steve Smith.

“Sometimes talks on improvement seem a little monotonous, we should do this, we should do that. Today, I will say something that you may or may not like. Had we lost to India, Australia or any other top-ranked team, there wouldn’t have been so many questions. Had Virat Kohli or Steve Smith played a decent knock, we would have accepted that we couldn’t have done anything,” he stated.

“The series proves that we need to improve even in ODI cricket. Defeat against India or Australia wouldn’t have been questioned. I am not demeaning Zimbabwe by any means as they really played well. From my side I can say, we need to work on a lot of aspects,” Tamim added.