Bangladesh Test captain Mominul Haque on Sunday (April 11) made it clear that they would not experiment anything on the upcoming Test tour of Sri Lanka as they are badly seeking results after having failed in five-six matches in the longest format of the game lately.
Bangladesh is all set to play Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series from April 21 to May 3 in the Island nation. Tigers will leave for Sri Lanka on April 12 with their tour will begin with a two-day practice match on April 17-18 followed by two Tests at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
Mominul told reporters in Dhaka on Sunday, “One can't experiment on a tour to Sri Lanka, particularly without results behind you. We need results, having failed in five or six Tests.”
He added, “Sri Lanka is a great team at home. It will be challenging for us. It won't be easy for us. But the situation we find ourselves, we have to take up this challenge and find a good result for the team.”
Bangladesh won just one of their last nine Test matches, including a home series against the West Indies in February. The Tigers have also recently lost all matches in New Zealand in March, but Mominul asked his team to just forget the result and look only at the positives and keep moving forward.
The skipper further noted, “New Zealand is in the past. But we can learn a few things from there. The pace bowlers have been doing well in the last four or five series. I am generally happy with the bowlers — pacers and spinners.”
Bangladesh Test tour of Sri Lanka was originally scheduled for October and November last year but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Test series has been rearranged for April 2021 and Mominul believes that the series will be “challenging and competitive”.
He signed off by saying, “I think it will be a competitive series. It will be challenging. Both teams have good pace bowlers. Batting is going to be very important. We haven't been batting up to everyone's expectations off late.”
Earlier this week, Bangladesh announced the 21-member preliminary squad for the Sri Lanka tour with the larger squad to be trimmed into a 15-member group after their inter-squad warm-up game in the Island nation for the two-match Test series starting later this month.
Bangladesh's preliminary squad for the Sri Lanka Test series:
Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Shadman Islam, Abu Jayed, Taijul Islam, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nayeem Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadat Hossain, Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali, Shoriful Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Mukidul Islam, Shuvagata Hom, Shohidul Islam, Nurul Hasan
(With AFP Inputs)
