Composed Tamim revels in new avatar

During the 2011 World Cup - incidentally, just before a game against Netherlands - an angry Tamim Iqbal sought out Indian journalists. "Where is Sidhu?" he demanded. Apparently Navjot Sidhu had made disparaging remarks about the Bangladesh cricket team, which had infuriated Tamim. Really angry words followed, before he cooled down, came back and apologised. As he has been guilty of at times with his cricket, Tamim had acted first and thought later.

During his tirade against Sidhu, Tamim asked whoever knew Sidhu to go remind him of India's match against Bangladesh four years earlier in the West Indies. In that match too, it was more about acting than thinking when he danced down to Zaheer Khan and deposited one of India's best fast bowlers into the stands behind deep midwicket. That is the style of batting Tamim has always been known for, but it hasn't worked for him as often as he would like, especially not in Twenty20s.

Tamim, though, continues to be Bangladesh's firebrand, confident and savvy, smarting for a fight. Only two months ago, he was fined for an altercation with another team's owner. The first day of their World T20 campaign needed a calmer head. It is a cruel format, in which one mistake can throw you out of the tournament. Bangladesh were still struggling to adjust their breathing patterns in the rarefied air of Dharamsala. Then they were asked to bat in uncharacteristic conditions: everybody expected pace and bounce on a surface that looked like concrete, but what we had a slow turner where the ball stopped even for the quicks.

With a tight start followed by a fall of wickets, Tamim showed the maturity you would expect of a man in his ninth year of international cricket. The risks he took were calculated and wholehearted. Netherlands were getting a chokehold on as Roelof van der Merwe delivered a tight seventh over, mostly to the right-handed batsman Sabbir Rahman. Another dot ball, and Bangladesh would have been at five an over after seven. Tamim wanted to stay calm and bat through the innings, but he also knew he couldn't let that pressure build. He needed to stay on course for 150, which he had judged to be a good total on this pitch.

So Tamim chose this as the moment: left-arm spinner, turning the ball into him, looking to build a good spell. It had to be disrupted. He jumped out and, even though he was beaten in the flight, he went through with his shot properly. Van der Merwe looked back in hope as the ball sliced off the bat towards wide long-off. This was the moment right there: it sailed wide enough of the man, went for a six, and Tamim and Bangladesh found breathing space again.

In the next over, Tamim unfurled a delectable late cut to a slower ball, using his wrists to impart the power to beat short third man. The perfect innings on a tough pitch was now on. He stayed calm despite losing partners, including two in the 15th over. That is something, he says, he has been working on, especially in Twenty20s.

"I've been talking to the team management, players, coaches on how to go about T20 cricket," Tamim said. "I wasn't doing justice to my talent. I wasn't scoring too many runs in T20s, honestly. So I had to find new ways to score runs in T20s, and I've been quite successful at home and in PSL in Dubai. I try to be more calm, don't try to hit too hard early. If everything goes well, my success chances go higher."

Tamim found acknowledgement from opposition captain, Peter Borren. "I think he adjusted to the conditions pretty well," Borren said. "If you look at the scorecard, if Tamim bats 20 overs he would like to have got a hundred. But he played a bit of a lone hand. The fact that they were losing wickets at the other end did not go his way in making runs. He didn't get a lot of support. For a guy to bat through the innings, I think he showed a lot of maturity and deserved to be Man of the Match in a game where not many actually scored runs. It was the mature innings, which probably won them the game in the end."

For a batsman such as Tamim, to bat through the 20 overs and not get a century takes special amount of restraint. Tamim said he was not thinking of his own runs. He was thinking of getting the team to 150, a total that proved to be just enough thanks to an excellent bowling effort. That is a rare quality in T20 top-order batsmen: to suss out a good total early in the piece, especially on a tough pitch, and not get bowled out for an underwhelming total while aiming too high.