Tamim wants more cricket for Bangladesh

Batsman Tamim Iqbal has said that Bangladesh's ongoing lengthy break from international cricket will hamper the team's chances of performing at its best. He also suggested that other international sides should be more willing to play against Bangladesh.

"After such a great season, we are not playing for six months," Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. "It would definitely hamper us. People should be more interested in playing against us but instead we are sitting on the sidelines. We don't know who we are going to play after six months. There's no team in the world apart from Zimbabwe who sit out for so long between matches."

Bangladesh's last international appearance was at the World T20 in India on March 26. Their next assignment is scheduled to be against England at home in October, after their maiden Test in India was pushed back to early next year. A proposed West Indies tour of Bangladesh in September is under discussion but is yet to be confirmed.

Tamim said it was all the more frustrating to wait for international cricket after having had a successful 2015. Bangladesh reached the World Cup quarter-finals in early 2015, before going on to beat Pakistan, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe in consecutive ODI series at home. That string of wins secured their place in the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. In light of the team's improvement, Tamim wondered why other teams were still reluctant to play Bangladesh.

"Sitting for six months is not doing justice to anything," he said. "I could have understood if we played like we did five years ago when our result was predictable, but after performing so well they still don't want to play us, I don't know."

Bangladesh have been growing accustomed to such long breaks in international cricket over the last five years. Usually they face a lull in Test cricket but, this time, they are missing out on all formats after busy 2015 and 2015-16 seasons. The BCB said that it was trying to get teams to play against Bangladesh but also felt that players needed a break after non-stop cricket for 15 months.

Tamim said any team would suffer after such a prolonged break, and stressed that Bangladesh deserved more cricket at the highest level.

"Take any top team and tell them to sit for six months," Tamim said. "You will see how they perform after sitting for eight months. They won't play the way they were playing."