DHAKA, Dec 20, 2021 (BSS)-Bangladesh senior player Tamim Iqbal began the

procedure to return to cricket after a long interval, enforced by recurring
finger injury.

   The most reliable opener of the country started his net batting practice
today on the Academy Ground of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium as
part of his process to come back to the cricket.

   He is highly likely to return to cricket with the Bangladesh Premier
League (BPL) T20, which starts in the third week of upcoming January.

   As it was seen that he looks like to bat quite comfortably. Tamim was
consulted by a specialist in Leeds, England on November 22 as the injury
remains perpetual. The Bangladesh ODI captain went to England with the
thought that he might have to undergo surgery on a broken finger.

   But the scan report in England showed the crack in the finger almost
healed and the doctor sent him to rehabilitation for a month. But Tamim
returned to the field after getting the green signal ahead of scheduled time
as his recovery was faster than anticipation. But he would have to do light
batting at the beginning. His workload will gradually increase.

   For the time being he will face off spinners only at the net and will play
against fast bowlers after a few days.

   After leaving the batting practice for about an hour, he left the field
with a wide smile on his face. It seems that he is quite satisfied with his
batting practice.

   Tamim last played any cricket during the ODI series against Zimbabwe last
July. He missed T20 series and Test series in that tour. He was also ruled
out of the two Twenty20 series against Australia and New Zealand at home due
to injury. The ODI captain then withdrew him from the T20 World Cup squad.

   He was supposed to return to the cricket during the Test series against
Pakistan at home last month but before that he was injured again while
playing the Everest Premier League in Nepal.

   He has never been out of the field for so long due to injury in his long
career.