Posted by If you’ve been around this site for a couple of years and have properly been paying attention, you’ll know that we have a slight obsession with Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque on the not-at-all flimsy grounds that his name sounds a bit like a drunk person saying a team-mate’s name – a team-mate’s name which when mispronounced sounds like ‘animal’.
Alongside that, he’s actually a pretty good batsman. However, despite four Test centuries and an average of 63.05 in the longest format, he was batting at nine against Afghanistan today.
Bangladesh’s batting order has long perplexed us. Rather like Afghanistan, they seem to produce more than their fair share of spin bowling all-rounders and this gives rise to a situation where guys who start out as bowling tail-enders suddenly reveal themselves to be top order batsmen who bowl a bit. Then, two matches later, they’re back down the order again.
But Mominul? His freakish Test average is obviously going to fall, but Bangladesh aren’t exactly blessed with batsmen good enough to fluke such a statistic. Surely he’s better than coming in at number nine?
In case you’re wondering, Mominul’s near-namesake Anamul Haque opened. Anamul’s Test average is nine.
When Bangladesh’s opening batsman scores a century in the World Cup final, I claim the rights to the headline ANAMUL MAGIC.
We were thinking about rebranding as The Anamul Kingdom until Mominul came along.
Afghanistan simply haven’t been the same side since they ceased to field four Zadrans. This statement can be taken in either a literal or a cricketing sense, I’m not worried which as it holds true for both.
You could say he’s a Mominul tail-ender.
Not only is he one of the great number nines, he also sacrificed his wicket for his captain (Test average 13)…who then got out next ball.
What a guy.
I think Mominul was there to consolidate after one of the openers got off to a flier and then got out with the run rate decently high, or if one of the openers got out without doing anything at all. Unfortunately, both of them made about 20 off 40 and therefore neither of Mominul’s roles needed to be filled.
Still, he’s the best Bangladeshi batsman by a comfortable margin. Not bringing him in until number nine seems kind of… bizarre.
Such a shame that Enamul Haque missed selection…
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/55882.html
Anamul Enamul Mominul/Enamul Anamul Mominul/Mominul Enamul Anamul…
Maybe Bangladesh should be like The Ramones – you have to become an …ul Haque when you join the team. Players could choose prefixes according to aspects of their characters. Even better, their teammates could choose for them. Teams I have played for would have had Unreliab-ul Haque, Notveryusef-ul Haque, Ineffectu-ul Haque and Antisoci-ul Haque.
Due to prior commitments, I would have been mostly Unavailab-ul Haque.
Me,grumpy opening bowler. Irritab-ul Haque.
Not to be confused with Piers Morgan, who is a Terrible Hack.
Very disappointing selection of names in the Zimbabwe v United Arab Emirates minnow-fest overnight. None silly, basically. No outrageous girths to speak of. Only moderate facial hair,if any.
No wonder the associate nations are being unceremoniously dumped for the next World Cup. Their sole purpose is to provide us with some mirth; instead they turn up and play a sensible game of cricket, looking sensible, with sensible names. Good riddance to them.
The UAE had a chap called Swapnil Patel. Swapnil. What more do you want?
There was also one called Karate!
Sorry guys, those aren’t anything like silly enough.
We’re looking for names like the Namibian Burger Brothers (much vaunted as potential hires for Durham, so they could play with Onions and Mustard).
Or the gargantuan girth of Dwayne Leverock from Bermuda.
Swapnil Patil at least has that rhyming name thing about it, but that is workaday stuff and not up to the standards of silliness required for KC Associate Nation status.
Krishna Chandran is merely “known as” Krishna Karate – nicknames don’t count Dan, you know that.