5 Bangladeshi players who could have played for India had the partition never happened

#4 Tamim Iqbal

The backbone of Bangladesh’s cricket team

Tamim Iqbal is basically the Ashraful that had the temperament and desire to succeed. Tamim wasn’t always like this, though. Just like Ashraful, the Chittangongian took his talent for granted, something that was once visible in the recklessness while he batted.

However, after being dropped from the team for the 2012 Asia Cup, which prompted his uncle – the great Akram Khan – to resign from his post in the BCB, and then brought back, he became a completely different player. Indeed, it was as though he had woken up from the somnolence of complacency and began taking things more seriously.

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The result? He scored four half centuries in a row in the Asia Cup to help Bangladesh reach the final. His batting average before that incident was 28.84 in ODIs and 38 in Tests. Since that controversy, however, his ODI average has been 44.54 and his Test numbers have also gone up to 41.04.

Safe to say that post Asia Cup 2012, Tamim Iqbal is a different beast altogether – someone who could have challenged Shikhar Dhawan for the opening slot.