Facing Shoaib Akhtar was like nightmare: Tamim

Bangl­ade­sh’s ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal while reminiscing the time when he faced Paki­stan’s speedster Shoaib Akhtar said facing the Rawa­lpindi Express was like a nightmare.

Tamim, the veteran Bang­ladesh batsman, went down the memory lane and reminisced the time when he faced Shoaib.

The left-hander, who is also the Tigers all-time leading run-scorer, said that facing Shoaib was like a nightmare.

The southpaw put forth his opinions on Facebook Live along with former Bangl­adesh cricketers, Khaled Mahmud, Naimur Rahman and Habibul Bashar.

Tamim was scared to such an extent that one point in time he felt that the Rawa­lpindi Express would kill him.

“I say this always, I have played a number of fast bowlers, played 150kph deliveries as well. But for once I was scared when I faced [Shoaib] Akhtar. That day I felt, he would end up killing me. Such scary his bowling was,” Tamim said.

Mahmud, who was a part of the 2003 three-Test series in Pakistan, talked about his difficulties against Shoaib.

“I have found it hard to make people believe that I couldn’t spot Shoaib’s first delivery,” Mahmud mentioned.