Tanzid Hasan Tamim, the 22-year-old youngster who was part of the Under-19 World Cup-winning Bangladesh side, stated that now his sights were set on the senior World Cup later this year.

The next edition of the Men’s Cricket World Cup is scheduled to start in India on October 5.

Tanzid, unlike a few of his team-mates, took time to break into the senior side following his contribution in sealing the age-level World Cup.

The left-handed opener was first nurtured in the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s High-Performance Unit for a significant period before he broke into the Bangladesh ‘A’ side.

Following his impressive performances in the last edition of the Dhaka Premier League and the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup, Tanzid was called up to the national team’s 17-member squad for the 2023 Asia Cup, which will be played in Sri Lanka and Pakistan starting on August 30, as the replacement for Tamim Iqbal, who was ruled out of the tournament with a recurring back injury.

Now, the opener, who not just shares his name with Tamim but also the flamboyance of the veteran’s early years, has a chance to prove himself in the international arena in a major tournament, where he will be accompanied by many of his age-level team-mates, such as Towhid Hridoy, Shoriful Islam, and Shamim Hossain.

However, for Tanzid, the glory of the past is gone, and his eyes are only set on the future.

‘The success that we achieved is in the past. Now we are discussing among ourselves, and a dream ahead is winning the World Cup for the Tigers,’ Tanzid said on Thursday in Mirpur following a training session ahead of the Asia Cup.

‘As the World Cup is approaching, when we meet together, a single thing goes through our minds. It hardly matters how much we play in the Asia Cup, the World Cup is always there in the back of our minds,’ he added.

He also asserted his thankfulness for his maiden call-up to the national team being on such a big stage as the Asia Cup.

‘First of all, I am thankful to the almighty for managing a place for me in the national team set-up; moreover, the stage is the Asia Cup. Meanwhile, I have played along with our seniors, which also includes the BCB President Cup [2020]. I am utterly relishing it,’ the young opener stated.

The left-handed batsman also promised to repay the faith of the team management by filling Tamim’s shoes once he got the chance to play in the Asia Cup.

‘To me, Tamim Bhai is an idol. I grew up watching him. So I will try to do my best to retain my spot for the upcoming days as well,’ said Tanzid.

‘Look, I have been hearing this for a long time [having the same name as Tamim]. To be honest, I grew up watching his games as a kid. I got inspired to watch the matches because his name was similar to mine.

‘I try to learn a lot by watching his game; how to control everything, how to play in any situation. Of course, he is an inspiration. When we met, we talked about everything,’ the youngster said when talking about his namesake.