Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has slammed the lack of game time his team have had over the last few months.

The last time Bangladesh played a competitive game was at the World T20 in India on March 26. The left-handed batsman feels the lack of international matches is bad for his team, and has urged other national sides to be more willing to play against Bangladesh.

‘After such a great season, we are not playing for six months,’ Tamim told ESPNcricinfo. ‘It would definitely hamper us. People should be more interested in playing against us but instead we are sitting on the sidelines. We don’t know how we are going to play after six months. There’s no team in the world apart from Zimbabwe who sit out for so long between matches.’

Iqbal believes the lack of matches will set back a team that has improved over the past year. Bangladesh reached the 2015 World Cup quarter-finals, before going on to beat Pakistan, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe in consecutive ODI series at home.

‘Sitting for six months is not doing justice to anything,’ he said. ‘I could have understood if we played like we did five years ago when our result was predictable, but after performing so well they still don’t want to play us, I don’t know.

‘Take any top team and tell them to sit for six months,’ Tamim said. ‘You will see how they perform after sitting for eight months. They won’t play the way they were playing.’

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