Tamim Iqbal became the first Bangladesh batter to reach 8000 runs in ODIs, and overall the ninth opener to breach the landmark. He reached the milestone during Bangladesh’s first ODI against Zimbabwe when he moved to 57 with a late cut wide of short third man off Sikandar Raza in the 24th over.
Tamim, who notched up his 54th ODI fifty, is on a hot streak both as captain and opening batter. He was named Player-of-the-Series against West Indies last month, leading his side to a 3-0 sweep of the ODI series. He was the leading run-scorer in the three ODIs scoring 117 runs at an average of 58.50.
Tamim has led Bangladesh to six out of seven ODI series wins since he started his permanent captaincy reign in January 2021.
Having started his career in 2007, Tamim is inarguably Bangladesh’s greatest opener across formats. He is the second highest run-getter in Tests behind Mushfiqur Rahim, who narrowly beat Tamim to become the first Bangladesh batter to reach 5000 runs in the longest format of the game. Tamim, however, is the first to 5000, 6000, 7000 and 8000 ODI runs for Bangladesh.
The last 1000 runs took Tamim only 23 innings – two years, due to the lack of ODIs in Bangladesh’s schedule of late - and included two centuries. Interestingly, out of the nine openers who have made 8,000 runs, six of them are left-handers, Tamim being the latest one.
Tamim gave Bangladesh an excellent start in the first ODI against Zimbabwe stitching 119 runs for the opening wicket alongside Litton Das. He fell to Raza for 62.
This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.