The scene is all too familiar by now. Mominul Haque, with bat firmly planted on the ground, and his score creeping steadily into the 50s, another instance of him being bowled out in the 80s, yet again. At Sylhet vs Ireland, he scored 82 in the second innings he falling just short of a century, making it his seventh occasion of getting close to a century (and being dismissed). While Mominul Haque has 13 centuries and 25 half-centuries throughout his Test career, there have been many near-miss scores of 80s that have gradually accumulated as an underreported stat of frustration. It is ironic that while milestones make headlines, it appears the coaching staff of Bangladesh is more interested in what Mominul Haque does, rather than what the scoreboard displays.
Fine Margins Define Mominul’s Outs
Mominul’s latest dismissals illustrated the marginally small errors associated with the game of cricket. He was dismissed for the third time during his first test career by debutant Gavin Hoey after he hit an edge while attempting to play a quicker ball at silly mid-on. He was also dismissed for the second time during his test career when he swept a ball off spinner George McBrine to second slip. These two dismissals show how difficult it can be to succeed at the highest level of cricket, rather than what Mominul did wrong technically. As such, there have been many top-order batsmen in history (Tendulkar, Smith) who have struggled to go beyond a score of 99 because of their anxiety of being dismissed before reaching 100 runs. Ashraful points out that even some great players occasionally require 20-25 deliveries to complete converting a 90 into 100. Therefore, it is not just about getting out less frequently, but developing the temperament and the process awareness required to convert your starts into big scores. This is as much a psychological challenge for Bangladesh as a technical one.
Patience Over Panic for the Entire Unit
Ashraful’s message goes further than simply about Mominul; in addition to batting lineups not having an abundance of consistent large century scores, the batting lineups also do not squander their batting opportunities. Ashraful notes in both Test matches against Ireland, “most wickets were taken by good ball,” which represents a nod to the fact that the team does possess batting skills and that, at times, batsmen are subject to luck as well. With this type of mentality (rewarding the process and not just the number of runs), Bangladesh could have a new method of building long-term batting success with the current transition from one generation of batting talent to another.
Rather than an issue in Mominul’s continued flirting with the 80’s, it represents Bangladesh’s evolving cricketing thought process, where mental toughness, process of play, and overall support for the batsmen and bowlers to develop a unit-based mentality is being fostered. While big centuries will eventually be scored as this team grows into its own, the true value lies in the fact that Bangladesh is building a team that values patience, calculated risk-taking, and has a growing sense of confidence within itself as well as throughout all levels of the batting and bowling unit. Rather than Mominul’s “near misses” representing a statistical anomaly, they represent a pedagogical success story, because the runs will follow once the approach is correct.
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