DHAKA, March 24, 2022 (BSS) - 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."