Bangladesh Captain: ‘I believe we are not very good spin players’

After Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj combined to dismiss Bangladesh for 83 in the second innings of the second Test, Mominul Haque, the visiting side’s captain, remarked that the batting unit needed to improve at playing spin, particularly away from home.

Mominul pointed out that side-spin works in Asia, whereas over-spin works in areas like South Africa. Over-spin refers to when a spinner ‘gets over the top of the ball’ to extract bounce.

“I think we’re not very good against spin,” Mominul said after the game. “It may sound awful, but aside from one or two players, not many players can handle spin well.”

“Most likely, we mishandled them (over-spin), but I get the impression that when you lose a match, a lot of things pop up in front of you. I believe it is critical to understand where we want to score runs against spinners “he added.

Harmer and Maharaj, the South African spin combo, also out-bowled their Bangladeshi counterparts, taking 29 of the 40 wickets that fell in the Test series. Mominul emphasized the importance of over-spin in places like South Africa once more.

“Look, in the subcontinent and elsewhere, the wickets are different. In the subcontinent, side-spin is quite significant, and side-spin is very vital for us.’ Overspin is popular in this region, however due to the conditions in our country, a bowler prefers side-spin. If you wish to accomplish over-spin, you’ll need to make some technical adjustments.”

Mushfiqur Rahim was also defended by Mominul for getting out to a reverse sweep on Day 3 of the Test. Rahim has played it on a regular basis in limited overs cricket, according to him.

“I’m not sure why there’s so much fuss about his reverse sweep, because he plays it in Tests, ODIs, and T20s, as you can see. And reverse sweep is a cricketing shot and he can play it”.

“If this shot (reverse sweep) is in his game plan, he will play it, and it’s not like he hasn’t scored runs with it.” Instead of talking about it too much, I support him and would want others to do the same,” he said.

Mominul was also frustrated that they did not take advantage of the opportunity against a South African team that was under-strength. Several of the hosts’ established Test cricketers were absent due to their decision to participate in the Indian Premier League.

“As a captain, it’s frustrating because they were missing a number of key players, and I thought we had a strong opportunity of winning at least one Test match.” However, we did not take advantage of the opportunity. In Test cricket, you have to progress as a team on a daily basis, not just one or two good sessions or three days out of five.”