Mushfiq sweeping his errors away

The century that Mushfiqur Rahim scored against Sri Lanka in the second Test at Mirpur was very different from most of his recent innings. 

It was one where he played mostly with a straight bat, drove, flicked, and pulled most shots to score runs. 

A few shots he played less than usual were the sweep, and especially the reverse-sweep.

The shot that had gotten him lots of criticism over the recent times was one he chose not to play much, even though in press conferences before, he had stated otherwise. 

The visual of Mushfiq playing a reverse-sweep and getting dismissed in the second Test against South Africa is fresh in the minds of many fans.

It was a shot out of the blue after he reached his half-century and looked good for more.

But that dismissal, compounded by a lean patch in the white-ball format in recent times had many questioning his future in the national team, even in Tests.

Those worries have now been quashed with the way he batted in the second Test, especially on the second day.

For the most part in this innings, he avoided the sweep shot, only playing it after he had his eye in and after reaching his hundred. 

The sweep shot was played only 10 times in his 355-ball innings where he remained not out on 175.

The sweep though is a shot that he is good at and has scored runs off of it.

The worry has generally been about his balance when he plays the reverse-sweep, and the deliveries he tries to play it against.

Here, he attempted his first reverse when he was close to 150 and got a boundary off the first time he attempted it, after scoring 240 runs if we count the runs he scored in the previous innings too.

In total, he played 10 sweeps and two reverse-sweeps in this innings and batted well with the tail to take Bangladesh to a competitive total after a horror start.

It was an innings of attrition, control, and composure and can be considered one of Mushfiq's best Test innings'.

In the Test series against South Africa, Mushfiq attempted 13 sweeps and one reverse-sweep where he was dismissed once and had top-edged the shot, four times. 

In the first Test, Mushfiq was much more cautious, perhaps too cautious, but he did try to up the ante with a sweep shot and got dismissed playing it. 

Prior to the dismissal, he had played 14 sweep shots and scored 19 runs from those, but didn't try playing the reverse-sweep even once.

This could be something that Mushfiq is trying to do to score big and curb his instinct to play a shot that has brought his downfall many times previously. 

But eventually, what needs to be said is that his playing of the sweep has decreased in the last few games, especially the reverse sweep. 

If this continues, the runs should also come, and Bangladesh will hope that it's a sign of things to come in the future.