Must-win match for Tamim-less Tigers

Tamim Iqbal's shock retirement took Bangladesh's cricket fraternity by storm on Thursday. His sudden departure has caused a stir, especially because he decided to leave mid-series and was captaining the side against Afghanistan and are 0-1 down. As expected, 'Tamim talks' have dominated most of the pre-match discussions before Bangladesh's do-or-die game on Saturday, so much that it annoyed the stand-in skipper Litton Das in the pre-match press conference.

Litton assured that there won't be any negative impact on the team after Tamim's 'break' and stated all the team needs to do now is to look forward. 

"If Tamim bhai was injured, we would have played with someone else. I don't think anything has changed due to his retirement. Everything will be the same," Litton said in the pre-match press conference on Friday.

"That's normal (a player retiring). Going forward, there will be newcomers and they will keep coming. Obviously, it would be great if he was here. Since he is not here, let's not talk about that topic anymore," the captain added.

But there was a late twist in the story, Tamim withdrew his retirement on Friday afternoon as he is set to take a mental break of one and a half months.

Litton was more concerned about reducing the silly mistakes that the batter made in the first match and levelling the series on Saturday. 

"We have a match tomorrow, it's better if we don't talk about this topic anymore. We are still 1-0 down in the series. The biggest concern to us is how we can win the series. More importantly, how we can play good cricket tomorrow. I think all our teammates are focused only on one thing."

"Even Tamim bhai mentioned 'team first' while leaving. I don't think there is any point in talking about it. Since the BCB gave me the responsibility, I will try to give my 100%. We will try to play good cricket and bring out a positive result," Litton further said.

But 'Tamim talks' aren't stopping anytime soon. Even the Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said he was surprised with Tamiim's sudden retirement but he also mentioned his absence will boost the visitors as they are already 1-0 up in the series. 

"It's surprising for everyone that he left in between the series," Hashmatullah said. 

"He was one of the top players for Bangladesh. He did well in the past also and more experienced guy and captain for a long time in this format. So it will be a good advantage for us," he added.

The Tamim questions frustrated Litton so much that when he finally heard a question regarding the batting failure on Wednesday, he instantly said "Good point!"

There are supposed to be a few changes in the Tigers' playing XI. As Tamim is out of the team, Naim Sheikh may come in his place even though Rony Talukder has been called to the squad. There may be a little shuffle in the bowling attack as well.

One thing that Litton focused on is reducing the silly mistakes. Towhid Hridoy also said a similar thing after the first match.

"We made silly mistakes, none of us got out to good deliveries except one or two. We will try not to make the silly mistakes."

On the other side, Afghanistan are confident of sealing the series on Saturday. Skipper Shahidi termed playing against Bangladesh in Bangladesh "very difficult" but he did mention the team morale is high at the moment. 

"Playing in Bangladesh against Bangladesh is not easy. But we have won the first game so morale is high and everyone in the dressing room is confident, and looking forward to the series. In sha Allah we will try our best to win the series," he said.