Test Captaincy Totally Unexpected, I Was Never Ready: Mominul Haque

Mominul Haque: The newly appointed Bangladesh test captain Mominul Haque has said that test captaincy came as a surprise to him and he was never really anticipating it.

Mominul will be the 11^th captain to lead Bangladesh in the longest format of the game as he has been given charge of the test squad which will tour India for a 2-match test series.

The change in the test captaincy of Bangladesh was completely out of question until Shakib Al Hasan was imposed a 1 year ban for breaching ICC anti-corruption codes.

And, even when Shakib was banned, Bangladesh had senior players like Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah in the squad who were stronger candidates of captaincy than Mominul.

But, the selectors picked Mominul to lead the side which came as a pleasant surprise to the left-hander as he said he wasn’t ready for it.

Mominul is not taking captaincy as an added responsibility. He is looking to play his natural game as he did in the past.

Mominul knows if he has to lead from the front, he will have to score runs for his team. There is no other way. If he thinks too much about captaincy, that is not going to help him.

Mominul is super thrilled to play against Virat Kohli as his counterpart. The 28-year old considers Virat as the world’s best batsman across all formats.

“There is a lot of thrill [going to toss with him] because I think he is the best player in the world and the number one batsman in all formats. If I think in that way then it will be quite exciting,” Mominul said before taking the flight to India for the test series.

Bangladesh also have to play a day-night test match on India tour which is going to be a different challenge for Mominul as day-night test cricket is an unknown territory for Bangladesh at the moment.