Tamim could retire from one form of cricket to prolong his career

Bangladesh ODI team captain Tamim Iqbal has revealed that he could retire from one form of cricket in the next six months to prolong his career.

"If I want to prolong my career, I will have to manage my body. I will surprise you. I will play two formats. Whichever formats suit me best and where the team needs me, I will do things accordingly." Tamim said in an interview to the online news portal 'Allrounder.'

In the interview, he also addressed why he left New Zealand early and came back to Bangladesh without participating in the T20I series which Bangladesh lost 3-0.

"I had told the head coach (Russell Domingo) and selector (Habibul Bashar) Sumon Bhai that I wanted to opt-out of the T20Is. You see, we are touring Sri Lanka again in a few days and after being away from your family inside a bubble for over a month is not easy. You need to remain mentally fresh. Plus look at the schedule we have ahead this year. It's non-stop cricket, so this decision was made a while back with everything in mind," he said.

Tamim has often been criticised for having a poor strikerate in limited-overs cricket and, while he understands that he has room for improvement, he feels that he has improved from where he was before: "At first, I had a strikerate of 92 and an average of 9 in T20Is. From there, I've increased it to 118 and an average of 25."

The left-handed opener also spoke candidly that anyone that's better than him, can replace him at the top of the order and he's not holding on to any spot in the team by force. 

"If someone is better than me, then they will replace me. Simple. I'm not staying here by force. If I need to bat at a strikerate of 140, I will try to do that. My goal is to always do what's best for the team," he concluded.