Bangladesh veteran cricketer Tamim Iqbal gives credit to the past selectors of the national team for picking Rishad Hossain in the T20I team and giving him chance again and again.

Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka by 2 wickets in their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Saturday (June 8) in Dallas. Leg-spinner Rishad Hossain was adjudged man of the match for his outstanding performance with the ball. He took 3 wickets for 22 runs in 4 overs.

Tamim thinks that the past selectors- Minhajul Abedin Nannu, Habibul Bashar Sumon should have given for Rishad Hossain. He also praises Rishad for his clever bowling in the match. “Definitely he (Rishad) had a fantastic game. If you see the 15th over of Rishad Hossain, which I believe the third he bowled, before his third over, there were 3-4 overs overs bowled by Shakib (Al Hasan) , Mustafiz (Mustafizur Rahman) , Taskinr (Ahmed) and they didn’t give away anything. So, when Rishad came to bowl the 15th over, Sri Lanka had to after him, they had no other option. So this is where I think he bowled extremely cleverly, got two wickets and change the whole course of the game.

“A lot of credit goes to selectors who picked him, not the present, I’m talking about the previous selectors. Because to be very honest if you see the domestic performances of Rishad Hossain was never up there. The selectors took that gamble, they gave him chance, they kept on playing him in the last 10-15 T20Is and eventually it’s paying off. So, there are a lot of credit goes to selectors, not many people speak about it,” Tamim said.

However, Tamim thinks Rishad needs more support from the team in future if he has a bad game. He mentions India’s spinners duo- Chahal and Kuldeep’s name in that case. “I expect a lot more. But the sub-continent are very reserved oriented nations. If you win everything is good but if you’re not winning, when not performing, to have that back, to have that support towards him is very important. Because leg-spinners are someone you need to build, it’s not like they’ll come and just start firing from the game one. If you see Chahal [Yuzvendra], if you see Kuldeep [Yadav], India built them. This is now, they’re the match-winners for them. So, that’s how you have to be patient with him. He might have a bad game, he might have a fantastic game in the next game, you never know but if he’s having a bad game, you need to be really patient with him,” Tamim added.