|| CF Correspondent ||

Bangladesh batsman Mominul Haque hasn’t played an ODI for the Tigers since the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Although he has been a regular member in the Test side of the country, the left-hander always fell short of expectations in the 50-over format.

However, Mominul will be now hoping to return to the ODI team after putting up some brilliant performances in Bangladesh A’s recently-concluded tour of Ireland, where he amassed 297 runs in four one-dayers at 74.25. The 26-year-old batsman also recorded the highest individual one-day score by a Bangladeshi batsman outside Asia, during that tour.

In Ireland, Mominul played his career best List A innings of 181 runs off 133 deliveries, defying his ‘Test specialist’ tag. With consistency, the left-handed batsman could put an end to Bangladesh’s struggle to find a long-term solution to its top-order, where many young batsmen have been tried and tested but failed to prove their steadfastness.

“I think the Ireland series was a great learning curve for me and it will help me in my coming days,” said Mominul. “I had to learn how to play aggressive cricket in a completely different condition and it was entirely a new experience for me.”

Mominul said that enriching his stock of shots proved to be very useful for him in limited-overs.

“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 shorter-version career,” Mominul said.

Bangladesh Test and T20I skipper Shakib Al Hasan, who needs to undergo a reoperation on his finger because of a long-standing injury, could miss the upcoming Asia Cup next month. In that case, Mominul will have the challenging job of replacing the all-rounder in the batting-order at no. 3.