Bangladesh batter Mominul Haque said his 55-ball half-century involved ‘calculative risks’ rather than an aggressive mentality after the left-handed batter got dismissed while trying to hit a boundary in the last over before Tea on Day 4 of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram on Tuesday.
He joined Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan in the 4000s club. It took him 113 innings to reach the milestone.
The fourth day of the first Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Sylhet on Monday was just about completing mere formality -- at least that’s what was ensured by the recklessness portrayed by Bangladesh batters the previous day.
Bangladesh national team players began their preparation for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka under head coach Chandika Hathurusingha on Monday even as majority of the stars are busy with BPL duties.
Two big knocks from Mominul Haque and Parvez Hossain Emon cemented East Zone in a commanding position against North Zone in Sylhet, while two gritty fifties from Naeem Islam and Mahidul Islam Ankon meant the Central Zone-South Zone encounter is nicely poised in Mirpur.
The Bangladesh cricket team had a long meeting yesterday regarding their batting and bowling display in the first Test against New Zealand. Head coach Chandika Hathurusingha believes they were guarded against complacency creeping in and senior players such as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque had talked emotionally in the dressing room to send a message to the rest of the team.
Shamsur Rahman Shuvo hit 160 in the National Cricket League's third round as Sylhet Division dominated proceedings against Rangpur Division in a Tier 1 game at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna yesterday.
"The 2023 ODI World Cup is a big opportunity for us. There are a lot of senior stars in the team with many matches under their belt. The junior stars are performing regularly and the bowling line up is very good, especially pacers. In the Asia Cup, I am not thinking hard. I am expecting more from the World Cup," said Mominul
A thumping victory over Afghanistan in the one-off Test in Mirpur saw Bangladesh batters Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mominul Haque gain significantly in the ICC Test batters rankings.
Mominul and Shanto have some similarities when it comes to dealing with criticism and overcoming tough periods in their career.
Mominul went more than two years without getting a Test century, having scored 11 hundreds in the first eight years of his Test career.
Mominul Haque, the batter who joined Shanto in the middle after Zakir’s dismissal, had the feat of scoring two centuries in the same Test. Mominul had scored 175 and 106 in the same Test against Sri Lanka in Chattogram back in 2018.
This time last year, Mominul Haque had just come back from South Africa as the Test captain and played a Dhaka Premier League match on the same day of his return, while harbouring hopes of taking the national team to the next level in Tests. One year later, Mominul is not the Test captain anymore. This time, Mominul’s team Rupganj Tigers played their last match of the Dhaka Premier League having finished just outside the top six. Scanning from outside the dressing room, Mominul appeared to be ‘well inside’ the hut. A call or two later, he would agree to a meetup for a minute’s talk which turned into a discussion on Test cricket.
Loneliness during bad patches in top-level cricket often does not come into the spotlight. It is an issue Virat Kohli had spoken about recently.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday included the likes of Mominul Haque, Taijul Islam, Mahmudul Hasan Joy, and Anamul Haque as it announced the BCB XI squad for their upcoming tour of India this month.
For Bangladesh, things have been chaotic in Tests and T20Is both on and off the field lately. The Test and T20I sides have seen sudden change in leadership, with Mominul Haque and Mahmudullah Riyad being stripped of captaincy of the Test and T20Is respectively.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon admitted that the issue of Mahmudullah Riyad's T20I captaincy has come up in the media as the captain has been not amongst the runs but opined that changing captaincy at this moment will not bring immediate results.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board today declared two separate squads of the Bangladesh A team who are set to tour the Caribbean in August to play two four-day 'Tests' and three one-day matches against West Indies A.
Bangladesh’s batters had shown the approach needed in Tests in alien conditions during their win in Mount Maunganui in January this year and executed a plan as a unit against the Kiwis, who boast arguably the best pace attack in the world in their home conditions.