Mominul Haque carries an infectious smile. The left-handed batter is getting ready to spend some time with his family in Cox's Bazaar during the Eid vacation and seemed excited about going back to the roots. Ahead of the departure, Mominul spoke at length with Cricketlineguruji regarding his transformation as a batter and, most importantly, batting to score runs rather than merely survive at the crease, a mantra he followed earlier but changed recently at the insistence of his personal batting coach, former Bangladesh's head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, with whom he worked in Australia.

Here are the excerpts

How much are you actually enjoying your batting right now?

Mominul: Now, what I feel is, for the last one or one and a half years... it feels like how we used to play tape-tennis cricket in our childhood. You have played it in your life and everyone has played. Going to the field and having that pure enjoyment of the game like going out of home by whatever means to play cricket inside the neighborhood. The enjoyment that worked back then, the fun it brought, I feel that exact same fun playing cricket now.

You are having this fun because you have seen it all and now you've reached a stage in your career where you have very little to prove to anyone. Is that a big reason?

Mominul: I think you are exactly right. With all the cricket I have played up to this point, at this age, I honestly have nothing to lose, and I have nothing left to prove. Because of this, I think I enjoy it a lot more. If I fail, I fail. If I succeed, I succeed. When you worry less about failure, you get more enjoyment out of success. So nowadays, I don't think too much about failing To me now instead of thinking about how to cover up if I fail, I think about how I can enjoy the game. That's probably because having gone through the ups and downs, I now have nothing to lose, which is why I enjoy it so much.

I was talking to your personal coach former Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha and asked why Mominul was failing to convert his fifties regularly? Hathurusingha said Mominul was "in his flow and maintaining that flow is the most important thing for him"? Can you explain what he actually meant by "flow"?

What he (Hathurusingha) meant by flow, from what I understand to perform regularly your fundamental requirement is to understand your pattern of play. When you bat, how will you start your innings from the very first ball? How will you adjust to the conditions in the first 20 balls? When you know these things and this pattern is established, your flow will develop. So I think he meant exactly that. In his perception, maybe I know how to start that flow, how to handle it, how to play up to 20 balls, and how to accelerate my game after that. He probably believes I know these things, which is why I think he explained it that way to you.

You spoke about patterns, Mominul. If I look at your batting, your century scores have actually followed a specific pattern. The major part of that pattern is that your first 30 to 50 runs were very quick. Then you start to control it and stay in that range until 70. After 70, you become quick again. After the fifty, up to 70-80, you used to play a bit slow and then build. Somehow, don't you think back then, a major reason for batting in this pattern was because you often batted at number four? Now, batting at no. 3, you are essentially playing more like an opener than a middle-order batter?

You have thought about it that way, and your analysis might be right, since it seems you have analyzed the matter quite heavily. I think you have analyzed it well. Look, when I go out to bat, given the conditions of the match, it is difficult to play shots right away. Yes, meaning how it is when you go out now. Yes, when I go out now, just looking at the last two series, except for maybe the first match, in three matches I faced maximum new balls and went there within one or two overs. At that time, with that pattern, you cannot just accelerate even if you want to because you have to adjust to the conditions, adjust to the bowlers, and there is swing and seam. Because of that, it takes some time. But this is not a complaint.

Soyou changed your pattern because you had to adapt to new role?

Adapt, yes. For new things, there are some changes. This is not just in my case; every batter in the world has to change these patterns depending on the conditions. Maybe one day you play in one condition, and a Test match is a game where the conditions keep changing across the five days. It keeps shifting on and off. It's one way in the morning, another way when the sun comes out and different again in the afternoon when the sun goes down. So, one has to adjust to those patterns.

Whether the pattern changed or not, looking at your current batting philosophy and style-if I am not mistaken, yes-there are a range of shots that you have increased. Previously, you used to play within a minimal range of shots and stick to them. If a ball arrived outside of that, you wouldn't bother much with it; you would say something like I won't give my wicket away to this ball or I will protect my wicket on a ball that is not comfortable for me to hit. But now if you look at your batting wheel you have shots for almost every part of the wicket?

Basically, this mindset developed when I worked with Hathu (Hathurusingha) in Australia and since then things have improved. After going there, I felt like my mindset changed a bit. Because you see, for a batter, it's always challenging-whether it's a One-Day match or a Test match, especially in a Test match, the first 20 to 30 balls, maybe up to 40 balls. After that, you adjust to the conditions. Back then, Salahuddin Sir used to say that as a batter gets set, his range shrinks-meaning his length shortens. At first, he might defend or leave an 8-meter ball, but after 30, 40, or 50 balls, he can drive or cut that same ball. So, I feel like I've been able to adapt to that and improve. Hathu also worked with me on these things when I went to Australia. From there, perhaps another thing changed as well - I used to bat just to stay at the crease, thinking I had to survive.

Right, thinking that if you stay, the runs will come.

Mominul: Yes, if I stay, the runs will come. That was the mindset. I've changed that to some extent. I won't say I've completely changed it, but I've changed it to some extent, thinking that now I will play to score runs. I'll play to score runs. When you play to score runs, things like your body movement and everything else work better.

Could you explain that training session a bit? I mean, what kind of training was it in Australia?

If I were to explain, I feel like he( Hathurusingha) didn't really do anything technical with me there. He had this belief-he knew that I had been playing Test cricket for a long time and that I knew how to score runs. He believed that. That was the biggest thing for me. Then he said that what he worked on... I think we had about 12 or 13 sessions. In all those 12 or 13 sessions, we worked on only one thing: my mindset. Mindset is about how you will play-meaning when you will play, how you will approach the beginning when you go out there, how you will approach it after that, and as you keep playing, when you will take risks and when you won't. So basically he just worked on my mindset, nothing else and he changed my mindset.

Was it difficult to change your mindset after spending so many years focused mainly on survival at the crease rather than scoring runs? Or does this question ever arise - why am I doing this?

Just creating the mindset isn't enough. You have to execute it. For execution, you have to practice accordingly. Suppose you want to go home from here. You've set the mindset that you'll go home, but how will you go? Which way will you go? On your way, there might be speed breakers, you might have to go at a certain pace, or there could be various obstacles. It can be like that. So, you need to practice for that. In my case, after developing this mindset, I practiced accordingly. After making me do that, he actually made me practice that way. He put me in various situations, and then I practiced that way. Then, when different challenges arose within that, how would I overcome them? We talked about these things and worked on them. Just having the mindset isn't enough; simply having a mindset won't do. You have to work on it, you have to practice it. Only then can you execute it. And even after practicing, you might not succeed in execution. It's not guaranteed that you will succeed. But the chance will be there. That's the thing. If you can practice that way, then maybe you'll get a good result.

In cricket, another thing that is very important, especially for batsmen, is belief. That "I believe what I've been told, that it works for me." You just mentioned that sometimes it can fail. But even then, isn't it very important to keep that belief? Like, "Okay, it might fail, maybe it didn't work today. I went out with the mindset of scoring runs today, and I got out." You might fail, but if you don't stick to this and go back to the previous one, it might not help. Isn't keeping that belief very important?

Of course. Another thing is how much you trust the person you are getting the coaching from. That is important. Do you understand what I mean? Now, for example, suppose Salahudddin Sir has been there since my childhood. If he says something, we believe every work like it's the Bible. I mean, it might sound odd. Even in MASCO, there are many boys-if Sir says something, they believe it without questioning. Even I do. If he says something, I believe it because I have that trust in Sir. Similarly, when Hathurusingha was here and he was here for about seven or eight years and I developed that kind of trust in him. Even if he says something unconventional, I trust his judgement. It's like that. So, because he said it, it caught on better in my mind. There are some people whose words you believe even if they are untrue. So, because he said it, I thought, "No, what he's saying is right, and I should work that way." And after doing that, by Allah's grace, it's better. Now it's better than before.

But despite scoring runs, you still are not converting them into centuries?

Yes, I think about it, but instead of fixating on a century, I find it better to analyze what mistakes I am making during that period. I focus on how to play a specific bowler at that moment, what my scoring options are, and what the threat options are. Thinking about that is far better than focusing on the 100, which is just looking at the result beforehand. If you do that, you might score a 100 occasionally, but you won't do it consistently, and it won't happen when it's most needed. If you keep stressing over a 100, you will never get there. Maybe some players can, but even for those who do, the success ratio is quite low. So rather than thinking that way, I prefer to keep it simple: how can I bat through four or five sessions? When I miss out on a 100, it's usually because I've only batted for two or two-and-a-half sessions. So I focus on how I can stretch that further to help the team. Thinking about how to play more sessions is a better cricketing approach, in my opinion.

Because the four sessions you used to play should ideally translate to three-and-a-half sessions now, based on what you are saying. Since you aren't playing with the old mindset of "I will just survive and the runs will come," you are playing actively for runs. So for you, it's just a matter of bridging the gap of one more session.

A gap of one session, yes.

If you play that one extra session, you will see that you've reached 100 easily, and you won't have that regret anymore.

Right.

Just one session because you are playing for runs

Yes, playing for runs. When you play for runs, there will naturally be an element of risk.

That's normal. At this stage of your career, you just have to take that risk.

Truly, as I told you at the beginning, I don't feel any of that pressure anymore. I am at an age where taking on that kind of pressure doesn't make sense. I have nothing left to lose. My job is just to go out and perform, you know? I have nothing to lose, so at this age, there is no need to carry pressure.

What mindset will you carry into the Australia tour?

Look, I will go with my mindset and I will go with my preparation. Look, I can never predict what the result will be but I will play according to my process. Whether it happens or not is in Allah's hands.

And what is your expectation? Following Bangladesh's recent rise in Test cricket, there is a growing expectation that if Bangladesh can play for five days they can expect great things? Bangladesh have already won in New Zealand's backyard.

It's not as though everything will suddenly fall apart just because we are touring Australia. This is absolute rubbish thinking, in my opinion. This is not acceptable to me in any way. You all are under a wrong impression if you think that way. But still, concluding from what you said, the fact that you all have started to believe is probably the biggest growth in Bangladesh's Test cricket-that if we can compete consistently for five days, we will give ourselves a chance. Our main target is not winning against Australia, that comes later. Our main target is to sustain for five days, to play for five days. Our main target is to play five days of cricket. What the result will be is difficult to say, I cannot tell. If we play a Test match and say beforehand that we will win the Test match, nobody can say that. Not a single person can say we are winning the Test match. Our main target is how we can dominate day by day with good cricket, how to dominate when, and how to execute. Ultimately, the result comes after five days. Now that we have won two series, if you start thinking too far ahead about Australia, I think that becomes illogical.