Bangladesh star batsman Tamim Iqbal will play in the fourth edition of the Everest Premier League (EPL) from Bhairahawa Gladiators.
Bhaiharwa, who is captaining Sharad Vesawkar for the T20 EPL in September, has signed Tamim, Bangladesh’s most successful batsman, in a statement on Saturday.
Tamim Iqbal is the third foreign player to be signed by Bhairahawa. Earlier, Bhairahawa had signed former Sri Lankan captain and opener Upul Tharanga and fast bowler Dhammika Prasad. Bhairahawa had also signed Dinesh Chandimal of Sri Lanka but Chandimal will not play in the EPL after being included in the national team.
After the contract of Tharanga and Tamim Iqbal, the opening pair of Bhairahawa has become experienced.
Tamim, 32, is Bangladesh’s most successful batsman. He has played 64 Tests, 219 ODIs, and 78 T20 internationals for Bangladesh.
Tamim also has experience with 229 T20 games. Tamim is the highest run-scorer from Bangladesh in Tests and ODIs and the second-highest run-scorer from Bangladesh in T20I.
Tamim has been playing international cricket from Bangladesh since 2007. He has scored a total of 4,788 runs in Tests, including nine centuries and 31 fifties. His best performance in Tests is 206 runs. Similarly, he has scored 7,666 runs in ODIs including 14 centuries and 51 fifties. His best performance in ODIs is 158 runs.
Tamim has scored 1,758 runs in T20I including 1 century and 7 fifties. He is the first and only cricketer from Bangladesh to score a century in T20I. He made history by playing an unbeaten 103 off 63 balls against Oman in the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Tamil has been captaining the Bangladesh ODI team since March 2020. Tamim withdrew from the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman in October-November. Therefore, Bangladesh has already announced the squad for the T20 World Cup without Tamim.
The fourth edition of Bajaj Pulsar EPL is being held from September 9 to 23 (September 25 to October 9) at the Tribhuvan International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur.
Under Sharad’s captaincy, Bhairahawa was the runner-up in the last two editions. In the final of the last edition held in 2018, Bhairahawa lost to Lalitpur Patriots by 14 runs. Former Nepali national cricket team coach Pubudu Dasanayake Bhairahawa is the head coach.
Bhairahawa, led by successful domestic cricket captain Sharad Bheshavkar, has national team young batsmen Arif Sheikh, Rohit Kumar Poudel, Kushal Malla, and fast bowler Abhinash Bohra as young star players.
Similarly, Pradip Airy and Bhuvan Karki, Krishna Karki, Anil Kharel, Harishankar Shah, Deepesh Shrestha, Bikas Agri, Durgesh Gupta, and Himanshu Dutt have already played for the national team. The names of the remaining players and players selected from the Talent Hunt are yet to be made public, Bhairahawa said.
