ASTANA (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers) - At the end of 2015, many though Samad Nikkhah Bahrami retired from the Iran national team, but he's ecstatic to finally rejoin the team this year.

Bahrami had been a fixture of the Iran national side before he seemingly ended his international playing days after the FIBA Asia Cup 2015 in Changsha-Hunan, China. He was there in the team's heyday, when they won 3 Asia Cups from 2007 to 2013 and qualified to the 2010 and 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cups. He missed the FIBA Asia Challenge 2016, the FIBA Asia Cup 2017 and the Asian Qualifiers first window, but he returned to action today and turned back the clock with another fine performance.

"I missed playing for Iran, and I wanna finish my career at the national team in a better way," he said. "I am happy that I have this opportunity again, and I had a really fun experience with the team."

Against erstwhile undefeated Kazakhstan, Bahrami was his old reliable self, scoring 21 points and handing out 8 assists as the Iranians clobbered the Steppe Wolves, 75-54. He reunited with old partner Hamed Haddadi, who tallied 20 points himself in addition to 20 rebounds. This result was good, considering how little time the team had to train together.

"Before the game, we new Kazakhstan was one of the best teams in our group, and we would have a tough game today, especially because they are playing on their home court," Bahrami explained. "We didn't have good rhythm in the 1st half because we didn't have a lot of practices, but we have very good players and our coaches worked hard especially on our defensive plays. I think we were very consistent and played good defense game for the whole game."

With Bahrami back in the fold, this Iran squad in the second window looks a lot sharper than the team that absorbed a loss to Iraq last November. Team Melli face the Iraqis anew on Sunday, 25 February, and try to get payback as well as extend their win streak to three games.

FIBA