Tamim aims to finish at top four in ICC Super League

Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal has set his sight to finish at top four in the ICC ODI Super League after conquering South Africa, a country where most of the cricketing nations found them in wanting. 

Tamim and his troop had recently won the three-match ODI series by 2-1, which was their first ever series win on South African soil. The result had put them at the top of the point table with 120 points from 18 matches and it looked they had already confirmed the 2023 World Cup in India. 

But Tamim said he doesn't want to take anything granted and his target will be to finish at top four in the point table. Bangladesh will play six more matches in the ICC Super League-three against England at home and three against Ireland at away. 

"If we win one or two more matches, maybe we will qualify for the World Cup," Tamim said after the third match against South Africa.

"But that's not my goal. My personal goal is that Bangladesh will finish at the top four. It doesn't make a difference if you qualify for the World Cup as number 7 or 8. If we can stay in the top four that will be a matter. It doesn't matter to me that how many matches we can win and how many points we can grab. We just want to be at top four."

Bangladesh have played six series so far. At home they beat West Indies by 3-0, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan by 2-1 respectively. Outside of the country, they won series against Zimbabwe (3-0) and South Africa (2-1) but lost to New Zealand by 3-0.

The ICC has launched the Cricket World Cup Super League to increase competition in ODI cricket and maintain the continuity of bilateral series between all the countries. 10 teams will take part in the 2023 World Cup to be held in India. India will play the World Cup directly as the host country. That rest of the seven teams will come from Super League. 

Even if Bangladesh does not win any match in the two series, they may ensure a ticket to the World Cup directly since the other teams would have to play more matches than Bangladesh and a lot of thing can happen. But Bangladesh are at such stage at point table that they have little to loss. 

Tamim Iqbal however has so far led the side astutely even though there was lot of questions regarding his captaincy. After the historic series win against South Africa, the Bangladesh captain is being showered with praise. But he does not want to stop here as he wants to take the team forward. "I always say one thing, captaincy is something I learn every day. I learn something new in every match. I never like to say that I've pinpointed captaincy. It's just the beginning for me. I will do wrong, I will do well. The captaincy continues like this."