Bangladesh Test Skipper Mominul Haque has confirmed that his team will not lose sleep over the intimidating prospect of playing India in their home conditions and instead will appreciate the opportunity to assess their quality against the top-ranked side. Bangladesh begins their stay in the ICC Test Championship with the toughest possible obstacle, compounded by recent board-level upheavals that culminated in Mominul being a captain.
On the eve of Indore’s first test, the 28-year-old said his side’s modest hopes of upsetting the apple-cart will also carry the added benefit of beginning the series without ‘Pressure.’ He said, “I think the positive thing [about this Test series] is that it is an opportunity. When you are playing with the number one side of the world who are very strong in all the three departments, if you do well it will create an opportunity for you. We don’t have that much pressure or expectation that we have to win. We will try to play our best cricket.”
Bangladesh is coming off an embarrassing loss to Afghanistan at home while India has accomplished a rare feat in its demolition of South Africa with its seamers outperforming spinners, giving more proof of its label of being the best in the world. On Mominul, whose side is bracing for a trial by both spin and pace, those figures have not been lost.
“I always try to think about the present, not about the past or future. India is such a team that they can give you a challenge in different ways. You can’t say they only challenged South Africa with spin bowling. Maybe they will challenge us with a spin attack. We are ready to face both spin and pace attack challenge from India. It will be a tough challenge for us. But we are preparing to face it,” Mominul added.
Mominul accepted Shakib’s suspension-enforced absence as missing
two different players but declined to buy into the suggestion that his team might be short on the red ball training.
“I don’t think there is any lack of preparation. If you look into our squad then you will see eight of the players have played quite a few four-day games recently. I have played eight to ten four-day games in the last five-six months. Every player was among matches recently, so I don’t think it will be a big problem,” Mominul said.
“Yes, it will be challenging [because of the absence of Shakib and Tamim], but there is no scope of thinking about it too much now. Shakib Bhai is equal to two players. So the absence of Shakib Bhai and Tamim Bhai will be like missing three players. We have to move away. I think due to their absence, everyone is more focused as we’re missing like three key players in playing eleven. In that sense I think everyone will play with extra responsibility,” he said.
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