Mominul Haque Aims to Seal Number 3 Spot in Limited-Overs Cricket

Bangladesh middle-order batsman, Mominul Haque feels he is well prepared to take on the challenges of limited-overs cricket. Of late, Haque has worked on increasing his range of shots.

It was Mominul Haque who got the most out of Bangladesh A team’s tour of Ireland. The southpaw looked in great touch in the limited-overs matches and managed to show the selectors he is useful in the limited 50-over format as well.

Haque has always been dubbed as a Test specialist especially early on in his career. However, his sensational 182 against Ireland A will remind the selectors that they have got a reliable number three in the limited-overs format. The southpaw has showcased his skills in Tests but believes he can repeat the heroics in white-ball cricket as well.

Promoting Shakib Al Hasan to the No 3 position could have been a stop-gap option. It might affect his bowling going into the future. The other options like Sabbir Rahman, Liton Das, Imrul Kayes have not been able to cement their place at that position. However, after Mominul’s innings, the selectors will get tempted to get the left-hander in the squad.

However, the batsman himself feels it will be too early to judge anything as it is just the start.

“I think the Ireland series was a great learning curve for me and it will help me in my coming days,” Mominul said.

Momimul Haque said he learnt to play an aggressive brand of cricket 

“I had to learn how to play aggressive cricket in completely different conditions, and it was entirely new experience for me. It was satisfying in a sense that I had managed to play a lot of shots throughout the series. I had very limited shots at my disposal, and probably that is the reason it had an impact on my career in the shorter formats,” he added.

Mominul further added he is not overthinking of his selection for the Asia Cup 2018 and is not losing his sleep over it.

The selection might well be in on the cards if Shakib Al Hasan decides to skip the tournament for his finger operation. Hence, Mominul will be hopeful of getting a place in the squad.

“It will be surely rewarding if I am picked but most importantly what I am more focused on is to cement my place if an opportunity arises,” said Mominul.

“It is more or less like Test cricket, every day there is a new battle as you have to start from the scratch after the game is over.”

Chief selector said Mominul Haque is very much in the radar for national selection 

Chief Selector, Minhajul Abedin went on to add Mominul is in the radar for national selection in white-ball cricket. That was the sole reason why he was sent with Bangladesh A team on the tour of England.

“We did not dump him as far as our ODI plan of action is concerned because if that was the case [then], we would not have sent him to lead the team in the 50-over segment of the tour.

“Certainly there are spots yet to be filled, and we are looking forward to seeing how he can be re-introduced in the shorter version. We’re well aware of his ability as a batsman,” he signed off.