No pressure on me or the team

Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque has said that neither himself nor anyone else of the team are under any pressure ahead of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which starts today (Wednesday).

Bangladesh went to the island nation having lost five of their six Tests under Mominul's captaincy, including a 2-0 whitewash against a weakened West Indies side at home earlier this year.

Both the captaincy of Mominul and the performance of some of the other players as well as the coaching staff came under heavy scrutiny, and this series is believed to be an acid test for the whole team.

However, ahead of today's first Test in Kandy, the skipper brushed aside any pressure on himself or the team, during a virtual press conference Tuesday.

"I'm not under pressure. None of us are. We have come here to win. We will try our best to win....If the process is right, if we can play well for five days, we will Inshallah win," the 29-year-old said.

"We are here to play. We will bowl and they will bat. We will bat and they will bowl. We will play according to our plan. That's what we are only concerned about, nothing else concerns us at the moment as professional cricketers," Mominul added.

The left-handed batsman, who has scored 10 centuries in his Test career but all of those at home, negated the notion of being relatively at ease away from the prying eyes of journalists due to the restrictions owing to the pandemic.

"I, in fact, miss media and press conferences -- the face-to-face interactions. In normal times, I always used to go and attend press conferences. I really like it. So I'm not relieved, instead I'm missing the journalists here," Mominul said.