Mominul Haque is a Bangladeshi first-class cricketer who serves as the captain for the Bangladesh national team in Test matches and plays as a left-handed batsman. He plays for Dhaka Division. He has the highest batting average in Tests for a Bangladeshi player. He is the only Bangladeshi player to score eleven consecutive fifty plus scores in Test history, and also the only Bangladeshi player to score centuries in both innings of a Test match.
Domestic career
He plays for Rajshahi Kings in the Bangladesh Premier League. Haque made his first-class debut during the 2008–09 season, against Chittagong Division. During the Bangladesh Premier League, 2012, he won the Man of the Match award for scoring 53* off 28 balls for his team Barisal Burners against the Khulna Royal Bengals to guide his team to a 4 wicket victory, In 2013–14 He along with Roshen Silva set the highest 4th wicket partnership in List A history of 276 runs. Mominul captained Bangladesh A team for the tour of India in late September 2015. It was his first tour abroad as a captain. In October 2018, he was named in the squad for the Rajshahi Kings team, following the draft for the 2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League. In November 2019, he was selected to play for the Dhaka Platoon in the 2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League.
International career
Haque made both his One Day International and Twenty20 debuts playing for the Bangladesh team against the West Indies in a home series in November and December 2012. He made his test debut against Sri Lanka on 8 March 2013 at Galle, Sri Lanka. He scored a half century on his debut and ended up scoring 156 runs in 3 innings at an impressive average of 52.00 in his maiden test series. He made his first century in a Test match against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013, off just 100 balls. In the second Test of the series, Mominul scored another century, which was also a not out innings. With this feat, Mominul became only the second Bangladesh batsman after Tamim Iqbal to hit centuries in two consecutive Tests. After a mammoth loss against Sri Lanka by an innings at home, Bangladesh came back strongly in the second Test courtesy of Mominul's hundred. Sri Lanka poster 587 runs for the first innings with the help of Sangakkara's triple century, Bangladesh scored 271 for reply, where Mominul again scored an unbeaten 100. It was his second Test century at the ZAC Stadium, Chittagong and the match was drawn at the end. Against Zimbabwe on 15 November 2014, Mominul scored his fourth Test century, which is his third at ZAC Stadium to post 443 for Zimbabweans to chase. In this match, Bangladesh also scored 300-plus in both innings of the match, a first for Bangladesh in Test history as well. With his continuous form, Mominul joined the elite club of Everton Weekes, Alec Stewart, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Simon Katich and Kumar Sangakkara as batsmen with 50-plus scores in nine consecutive Tests. He has also become the fourth batsman after Weekes, Sunil Gavaskar and Mark Taylor to score 50-plus eleven times in his first 12 Tests. Bangladesh comfortably won the match by 186 runs by achieving their first ever 3–0 Test-series whitewash. Mominul adjudged man of the match for his performances. As of 20 May 2015, Mominul became the 5th batsman in cricket history to score 50 in at least one innings of a test match in 11 consecutive test matches, despite having played less than 15 test matches. During the tour for New Zealand in early 2017, Mominul participated for the third highest partnership for any wicket for Bangladesh in New Zealand soil, when he along with Tamim added 85 runs. During the course, he scored a fifty. However, after few patchy scores in 2017, he was dropped from the squad. However, twenty-four hours after his drop, he was recalled for the Bangladesh squad for the first Test against Australia on 20 August 2017. On 31 January 2018 against Sri Lanka, Mominul scored his fifth Test century by scoring 176. He added 236-run partnership with Mushfiqur Rahim until Rahim was dismissed to 92 runs. This century is recorded as his fourth Test century at his very favourite ZAC Stadium. He also made 105 in the second innings as the match ended in a draw. By this way, he became the first Bangladeshi batsman to score two consecutive hundreds in two innings of a test match. In April 2018, he was one of ten cricketers to be awarded a central contract by the Bangladesh Cricket Board ahead of the 2018 season.
Test captaincy (2019–present)
On 29 October he was appointed as the 11th test captain of Bangladesh when Shakib Al Hasan, the regular Test and T20I captain of Bangladesh was banned from all forms of cricket by International Cricket Council for two years after breaching ICC Anti-Corruption code. His first assignment as a test captain was in the 2-match Test series against India in 2019–20. The second test match at Eden Gardens was the first ever Day/night test match played by both team and Mominul became Bangladesh's first captain in Day/night test match. Bangladesh lost both test match by innings margin and lost the series by 2–0 margin. In February 2020, when Zimbabwe toured Bangladesh, the home team won the one-off test match by an innings and 106 runs, which is Bangladesh's first test win under his captaincy as well as it was their only second test match win by innings margin. He also score 132 runs in their innings which was his first century as captain and equalling Tamim Iqbal's record of scoring nine centuries, the most by Bangladeshi batsmen in test cricket.
