Mominul revamps technique to bolster batting returns in West Indies

Bangladesh batter Mominul Haque loves to bat in the right flow and he is the is the joint highest Test run scorer for his country in 2024.

Mominul, who holds the record of scoring maximum number of Test hundreds for his country, does not have a very sound record in West Indies as he averages only 14.20 against them, at their own backyard. But with his new found success on the back of tweaking his technique, he will be eager to bolster the record in the Caribbean.

"I have changed my grip and batting set-up under the guidance of Sohel Mama (Bangladesh Tigers head coach Sohel Islam) and it is paying off," Mominul told Cricbuzz.

It all started when Mominul joined Rangpur Riders during the last edition of the Bangladesh Premier League.

Sohel, who was acting as the head coach of Riders, seemed well aware that Mominul needed to increase his range of shots, as well as, make sure that his head position is still facing the bowlers. This was especially after he seemed to be struggling against bowlers coming around the wicket and the offspinner.

"He (Mominul) is a very technique conscious guy and the other thing is that he is not someone who wants to remain fixed with any one technique. It was not a fact that he was very bad earlier and now it turned out very good. The changes are like say he was very side-on and now he is a bit open (chest) and to be honest it's difficult to explain," Sohel told this website, who also worked with him closely when he joined the Bangladesh Tigers programme that ran for more than two and half months in March to prepare red-ball cricketers for the year long Test assignments.

"As far as changing the grip is concerned you cannot play a lot of shots in a red ball game but he can play some shots freely. The grip was changed so that his range of shots increases as well as he is very free while playing those shots."

"As far as his set-up is concerned we tried to come up with a stance so that his head position is still in a good place no matter from what direction the bowler is bowling. He had issues with bowlers coming around the wicket or against the off-spin bowler and we wanted to make sure his head position is in right place while facing those kinds of bowlers," he added.

Mominul feels that he is reaping the benefits of batting with a changed mind-set as he is now more inclined towards scoring runs rather than staying at the wicket. He seemed to be batting aggressively in the longer format, unlike the past when he was a bit more defensive in his approach.

According to statistics, the left-handed batter scored 468 runs averaging 36 in the eight Tests that he played in 2024 while his strike-rate during this time frame is 58.94, slightly higher than his career strike-rate of 54.49, to be precise.

"I didn't understand earlier when I was going through a bad patch after my captaincy that I realized I needed to work on that (strike-rate)," said Mominul.

"Even I did not know about the stat (batting slowly) but Sir (Bangladesh batting coach Mohammad Salahuddin) informed me and there are times when players do not know about his own shortcomings and the coach helps in this regard," he said.

"One of the reasons for my bad patch was that I was a bit more defensive. Being defensive means I was thinking more about staying in the wicket rather than scoring runs. After knowing it (that I am a bit more defensive) it helped me. But that doesn't mean I am trying to score runs in every ball but most of the time I am looking for runs.

"It (strike-rate) was 54 earlier and now in this year it is 58 and I want to stay within this range because everything has a flow, like when you are driving a car you have to go in with a pace and you cannot accelerate much or go very slowly. I am working on having the right flow and it has a lot to do with mindset," he added.

Mominul's century against India is a testament of his new approach considering the fact he seemed to have reinvented his batting by