An uneasy traveller

The beginning of Mominul Haque's Test career was nothing short of a fairytale as the left-hander scored seven fifties and four centuries in his first 12 Tests for Bangladesh.

His role as a batsman since making his international debut in 2012 has changed quite a bit so much so that Mominul is now regarded only as a Test specialist.

And Mominul has done justice to that tag as his Test record is still among the best in the Bangladesh team and recently he became the first Bangladeshi batsman to score a 10th Test century, during the first Test against West Indies earlier this year.

However, that 10th century could not help his side avoid an embarrassing 2-0 whitewash against a relatively inexperienced West Indies side at home and it was the leadership of Mominul that came under immense criticism.

Since his appointment as Test skipper in 2019, Bangladesh have managed to win just one Test while losing the other five games.

With the upcoming two-match Test series in Sri Lanka set to begin from April 21 in Kandy, Mominul will be under heavy scrutiny for both his batting as well as his leadership.

Compared to his records at home, Mominul's Test records abroad are pretty dismal as he averages only 22.30 in 33 innings.  The 29-year-old still struggles at foreign conditions and is yet to score a century.

Many people raised questions over Mominul's ability to face quality fast bowling in bouncy pitches as he often gets dismissed once the ball comes into his body. However, the left-hander did work on that aspect and according to prominent coach Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, it is the approach from Mominul which can make a lot of difference in his batting.

"I think he is not the same batsman that I saw in the early days of his career. I think he needs to realise his problems and should have a better idea of his own game. I can understand that he may have got advice from people around him but I think he has come away from where his mindset was in the past," Fahim told The Daily Star while analysing Mominul's batting issues.

"I did work with him regarding the body-line deliveries which he was having trouble with in the past. This mainly occurs when he plays abroad. Apart from that, I don't see any other issues with his batting. As a batsman, he needs to fight it out and spend time in the middle and defend balls as much as he can. At times as a batsman you try to play shots to release the pressure and I think he needs to take more time while batting," Fahim added.

According to the prominent cricket coach who has mentored the likes of Shakib Al Hasan, a positive result in the upcoming Sri Lanka series can change the whole dimension of Mominul's thought process in the coming days.