Mominul improving as a captain but certain decisions costing Tigers big time

Before the ongoing Test match between Bangladesh and South Africa in Gqeberha, Mominul Haque led Bangladesh in 14 Tests and won three of them including the historic Test win in New Zealand. After being announced as captain almost out of nowhere before the 2018 India tour, Mominul has certainly shown signs of getting better as a leader on the field but it's quite obvious that needs a lot of improvement especially in terms of reacting quickly enough to specific situations. 

South Africa opener Sarel Erwee could have been dismissed in the third over of the match but a leg-before shout didn't go Bangladesh's way. Pacer Khaled Ahmed was absolutely certain that the decision would be overturned if sent upstairs but before he convinced Mominul, time had run out. Later, HawkEye showed that it was crushing into the stumps.

Now, Mominul, who doesn't have the best of the seats on the ground to know which one to review - and which not - should rely on his bowlers and keeper while making those decisions. And he has to have some sort of a conversation within 15 seconds. But he is often seen walking across slowly but the time does not wait for him. A similar thing happened a few times in the first Test as well. Shaun Pollock, on-air, said that Mominul was at times 'too relaxed'.

He sure has improved a lot in terms of field placing which was evident in the first Test where he had slips and close-in fielders for a long time. But in this match, he wasn't as proactive. 

He should have started with three slips early in the day when the ball was hard and new and offered some movements in the air and off the seam. Bowling coach Allan Donald signalled a couple of times from the dressing room to have three slips instead of two. Later, he came all the way down and had a chat with Mushfiqur Rahim at the boundary. 

Later, Mominul had one more man in the slips cordon but as soon as Bangladesh consumed a boundary, the slip went out again. 

Keshav Maharaj, South Africa's number eight, became the highest scorer of the innings with an enterprising 84 off 95 balls and was very severe against spin bowling. If Bangladesh had done their homework properly, they would have known Maharaj's strength against spin. Still, he removed the pacers too early from the attack and introduced the spinners. 

Maharaj welcomed both the spinners with a flurry of boundaries and Mominul opted for a defensive field with four men patrolling the boundary. Maharaj's weakness against pace was evident in this innings itself as Ebadot Hossain troubled him a couple of times with bouncers and Khaled beat his outside edge a few times. Mominul Haque missed a trick here by not attacking Maharaj enough with pace.

Mominul hasn't been at his best with the bat as well. The way he got out to spinners in the first match looked ugly. Some of his tactical decisions in the first match came under the scanner too. What the Bangladesh captain can do now is to keep all these away from his mind for the time being and deliver a great performance with the bat to set an example for the rest of the batters.