Bangladesh’s leading opener Tamim Iqbal insisted that he reaped the benefit of playing without any pressure to prove anything to anyone in the just concluded Bangladesh Premier League.

 Tamim made 39 off 26 balls in the run chase against Comilla Victorians to lead Fortune Barishal from the front to earn their maiden Bangladesh Premier League title on Friday. 

The southpaw came up with a scintillating batting performance in the tournament making the highest 492 runs in 15 games with an average of 35.14 and a strike rate of 127.13.

Many felt Tamim was eager to prove a point considering he had gone through a lot during the last one year, though the left-handed batsman begs to differ.

“During my international career, I have gone through lots of ups and downs. There were times when there were a lot of talks like whether I will be in the team or not. I wanted to prove people wrong and actually by trying to do that I learnt that I was building pressure on myself,” Tamim told reporters after the final.

“The most important thing that I learnt is that whenever I tried to do that (trying to prove something to someone), I put pressure on myself and in the next match, when I was going, I was almost full of pressure.

“I didn’t take it seriously or pay any heed to it and I only (not) focused on that and this is the learning that I had in my 17 years of my career. I just tried to do it this time. I know if I didn’t score, there would be a lot of talk but that’s fine. We had a fantastic environment to take care of,” he added.

Meanwhile, the former Bangladesh captain insisted that a lot of things need to be in the right order for him to be available in the national set-up again.

Bangladesh cricket had gone through a lot of changes during the last one year since Tamim unretired a day after his retirement.

Tamim later on decided not to make him available for the ICC World Cup and didn’t feature for the Tigers for the last five months.

Tamim, who asked the board not to keep him in the national contract, was expected to sit with the BCB President Nazmul Hasan Papon to give a clear picture of his international career during the BPL but as they failed to sit across the table, it is on hold for the moment.

“I would like to say one thing clearly, for me to make a comeback a lot of things have to be right. Otherwise, there’s no point for me to just come back and play,” Tamim said.

“I am in a stage of a career where I would probably play for another two years. So I need to tell them such things and since I did not have a final talk with them, it won’t be appropriate for me to comment here,” he said.

I haven’t spoken with him (new chief selector) yet. I was in communication with Jalal bhai (Jalal Yunus). I was available for a talk but unfortunately, we didn’t get the opportunity. I will be travelling abroad tomorrow morning (today) and hopefully, after I return, we will sit,” he concluded.