Tamim vs Siddons: Fans being misled?

As a nation, we love drama. Stories with added spice are something that have been culturally engrained into our system overtime. It is this very psyche of us Bangladeshis that is always factored in by professionals whenever they want to sell or advertise their products to the general public. Sure; conjure up a product, build a cheesy and sentimental narrative around it and the naïve Bangladeshis will be drooling all over it. 

The emotionally invested naivety of Bangladeshi sports fans being misled is nothing new. However, the most recent episode of such took place a couple of days ago when the batting coach of Bangladesh, Jamie Siddons was asked if Tamim Iqbal should bat down the order to instil stability in the number four position on the Test side and the interpretation of his response has created a ruckus that the fans could've done without.

"Siddons wants to demote Tamim to number 4", and "Tamim would love batting down the order" are the headlines going around in the circuit. These statements sound very incriminating for Jamie Siddons. It's as if he is the villain who wants to demote the best opening batsman Bangladesh has ever produced.  That's the narrative that has already been set . When asked about this at a private event yesterday, Tamim Iqbal plain and simply labelled the question as 'stupid'.

To be fair to Tamim Iqbal and Jamie Siddons, the problem was not with what the latter had stated. The problem started with the question in the first place and it was blown out of proportion when Siddons' response was misinterpreted. 

Yes, Siddons could've handled the situation in a smarter way because he has been in the game long enough to know that his words can be taken out of context. But it seems now that he has fallen victim to the cunning minds of Bangladeshi sports reporting.

Now without pointing fingers, the question remains, should Tamim really drop down the order? 

Statistically, no one comes close to Tamim Iqbal's contribution as an opener in Test match cricket for Bangladesh in the last five years. Where Tamim has scored eleven 50+ scores in this period, the other 8 openers who played in the same period have a combined six 50+ scores only. Whereas Tamim Iqbal has averaged almost 40 during this time, the next best average is just above 20 which is almost half of Tamim's.
The last six Tests that Tamim had missed saw five different openers in play. None of them could make a claim for a regular sport in the playing eleven due to paltry performances. Moreover, Tamim Iqbal has been fairly consistent in the runs in his recent outings. He scored a century in the most recently concluded series against Sri Lanka. He scored a 47 against South Africa away from home just a couple of months ago. Before that, he scored two 70-plus totals away in Sri Lanka. During this phase, there hasn't been anyone who outscored him at the top. 

Changing the batting position has worked out in the past for a lot of players. Prominent openers such as Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Adam Gilchrist all started out lower in the batting order before they started tasting consistent success as openers. What's noticeable is that none of them were demoted, rather they were promoted up the order. You'd have to do a lot of digging to find a successful example of an opener being demoted and being as successful lower down the order.
 About Tamim being demoted to number four, it is true that Siddons had stated that Tamim may do well there and enjoy the challenge. The reason why a Tamim Iqbal would flourish down the order is that he is an accomplished and a great batter. When you are good, you are good throughout the batting order. Tamim isn't labelled as a good batter because he scores runs as an opener. As a matter of fact, he scores runs as an opener because at his core he is a brilliant batsman in the first place. Maybe this is what the thinking was behind Siddons's statements.

You do not fix what's not broken. You just don't. At least not till you have found a better replacement. When it comes to opening the batting, there is no replacement for Tamim Iqbal. There is no rational reasoning behind dropping Tamim Iqbal down the order and I am certain that there is no way on earth that an experienced and world-renowned coach like Siddons wouldn't notice that.