Hosts Bangladesh are now preparing for the Test series after the successful one-day mission against the Windies. The first day’s practice session took place at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city of Chattogram on Tuesday. Almost all the senior players did not join practice session after the recently concluded ODI series. Among the seniors, only Test skipper, who did not played ODI’s, joined team’s training session.
When the skipper came into the nets, coach Russell Domingo also came to bowl him alongside net bowlers. Domingo said to Mominul, “There are two slips in the field for you, so that you can work on your weakness. Now bat.”
The coach then started to bowl to him and every ball maintained off stump length. In other words, Domingo was throwing the ball aiming at the hypothetical fourth and fifth stumps, which is the weak spot of Mominul. After successfully avoiding the first seven balls, Mominul went to play the eighth ball in a defensive manner. In the meanwhile, the captain was struggling to deal with the net bowlers, who have kept the ball on the off stump region. One of the balls touched the edge of his bat and went back.
After seeing this, the coach made some changes in the fielding and added another to the slip corner. He then said “You are the last batsman in the team now. Fight with this situation and bat.”
South African Domingo then threw the ball slightly outside the off stump region which also got some extra bounce. Mominul could not control himself this time and went to play. However, he failed to connect the bat with the bowl. The coach expressed his annoyance and asked Mominul in a bitter voice, “Why Mominul? Why?”
Then the coach stopped bowling and sat down next to him. Maybe he was annoyed to see the team captain and most important batsman’s approach of the game.
At the end of their chat, Domingo went to the net in the north-western part of the field with the captain. They again started the same training session and Domingo kept bowling to him in the off side region. Mominul continued the same practice for a long time. Domingo was resolute in his stance of putting an end to Mominul’s weakness, in the upcoming series against the Windies.
Of course, Mominul has always performed brilliantly in his hometown soil Chattogram. Six of his nine Test centuries have come on this venue. However, the coach wants Mominul to be fully ready against West Indies fast bowlers Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel. That is probably why Domingo has made additional arrangements to prepare Mominul.
