||CF Correspondent||

National selector Habibul Bashar said on Saturday that Mominul Haque is unlucky to have missed the cut in the squad for the ODI series against Zimbabwe.

Mominul was selected in the ODI squad for the Asia Cup at the very last minute after the Tigers were badly hurt by injuries to some of their key members.

His inclusion came on the back of a good show during the tour of Ireland with Bangladesh A-team where he missed the chance of scoring a double hundred by 12 runs.

However, Mominul’s bat did not shine in the Asia Cup as he scored nine and five runs against Afghanistan and Pakistan, respectively.

Although team management preferred to back some of the other members despite their poor run with the bat such as Nazmul Hossain [20 runs in three innings], Mominul was left out without being offered few more chances.

“Mominul’s non-selection is a bit unlucky I would say. However, his ODI career hasn’t ended. I think he has a lot of things in ODIs. But this is an opportunity for us to see some players, as we have a lot of series ahead. Then there is a World Cup after the West Indies, England (New Zealand) series,” Habibul told reporters at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

“Mominul played two matches in Asia Cup. Two innings is not enough to judge a batsman, but if he scored well in those two innings, it would be good for him. It would be great if Mominul could score runs [in ODIs],” he said.

The former Bangladesh captain added that he had seen a vast change in Mominul’s batting and was not sure whether it was due to his excessive stress of shorter format of the game or not.

“I recently saw his batting in ODIs. He is a completely different batsman now. I am not sure whether the idea of batting in ODIs is affecting his batting in Tests,” said Habibul.