Flashy, powerful and exuberant; over the course of time these words have become synonymous with Tamim Iqbal. While it has been a good number of years since he absolutely bamboozled a bowling attack, memories of some of his finest knocks still linger. From destroying the English in their own backyard with a dominating 94-ball century to dancing down the track fearlessly against Zaheer Khan and hammering him out of the park, Tamim's aggression with the bat has been the focal point of his career.

In the recent past though, the left-hander seems to have made a shift in his batting approach in Test cricket. His free-flowing drives have been replaced with cautious leaves and he seems to be concentrating a lot more on his front foot defence in training.

Yesterday for instance, Tamim spent almost an hour in the nets with coach Chandika Hathurusingha during training at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, trying to figure out which deliveries to leave and which ones to put a straight bat to.

While Hathurusingha used a sidearm club to constantly bowl along the corridor of uncertainty, Tamim concentrated on his off stump; a simple exercise, and yet it goes on to show a possible change in the batsman's thought process.

The batsman's career statistics suggest a shift in approach as well. His strike-rate in the last two year has hovered in the mid 40s. On the contrary, prior to 2012 the opener had a strike rate of 60.15.

While he has occasionally occupied the crease for long periods in the past, his recent knocks suggest that he has put a special emphasis on that aspect.

He has a total of seventeen 50-plus scores in Tests and only six of those innings have been played at a strike-rate of below 50. Four of those six knocks took place in the last one and a half years. Prior to the century against Zimbabwe in Khulna last week, which came at a strike rate of 32.83, he faced 226 balls for his 64 against the West Indies. At Kingston he scored 53 in 143 deliveries, while his 70 off 218 balls against New Zealand in October 2013, was scored at a strike-rate of 32.11, his slowest thus far.

While it may be a shift from his natural game, the apparent change is not necessarily negative. For years the batsman has been criticised for playing too many shots in Test cricket; for throwing away his wicket after a quick half century. His reply used to be simple, "I feel settled when I see myself scoring runs."

His century against Zimbabwe, which saw him bat out a day for the first time in his career, suggests that the dashing opener is in search of a new avatar. He probably still needs to find the right balance between the number of runs scored and the amount of time spent at the crease. If successful, Tamim’s new approach would be extremely handy for Bangladesh's top order, which is in dire need of stability.