The forthcoming two-match T20I series against the United Arab Emirates will mark the beginning of Litton Kumar Das’ long-term tenure as Bangladesh’s newly appointed T20I captain until the T20I World Cup next year. The ‘keeper-batter believed that having the team for a longer period of time would only help the national team.
“Naturally, this (captaincy for a longer period) is a positive thing. Because when you get a long-term opportunity, you can think about a lot of things,” Litton told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday.
“If I talk about the difference, earlier plans were made series by series. Now that there’s a longer-term opportunity, I’ll be thinking about the future in every aspect. I’ll personally know that I have a goal that extends further. Of course, there will still be series-based planning, but alongside that, I’ll also consider what more I can do moving forward,” he said.
“Now the question is, how well can I organize my team during this period? I’m also quite optimistic that there will be a long-term plan. With the players I have at my disposal, I believe we can deliver something good at the World Cup,” he said.
Litton continued by saying that he hopes to give the squad his best effort and that the other players on his team are adaptable with regard to their batting order.
“What do I want right now? What do I prefer? At least in the T20 format, I don’t want to see this thing – I want whoever the team asks to bat in a certain position to be ready for it. Of course, there will never be a day where I’m batting at number seven. If that happens, the Bangladesh team won’t get anything from me. The team should get what I’m capable of giving, and I’ll try my best to give that,” he added.
But lately, Litton has been a poor batsman, amassing just 242 runs in 16 Twenty20 Internationals in the last 12 months, with just one fifty. In addition, despite leading the team to a series victory, he did not perform well in the Twenty20 Internationals against the West Indies last December, scoring zero, three, and fourteen.
“Regarding captaincy, no one is a perfect role model. Let me respond to what you said – even without the captaincy, I’ve played poorly. Now I’m coming in as captain. It can also go the other way – maybe I’ll perform well after taking on the captaincy. Like I said, both positive and negative things will be there. There’s no one perfect role model in this regard,” said Litton.
“I think I last played an international series in December. Yes, I was going through a rough patch where runs weren’t coming from my bat. After that, I tried in the BPL and DPL. As a player, I can say this much – any player can only give their best effort. Sometimes you try hard but don’t get successful results. If you look at the other side, it happens that a cricketer may play one or two poor series, then make a comeback. I’ll try to do the same. I just want to give Bangladesh what my playing style brings. If I perform, it will help the team too.”
Since he hasn’t been captain for a long time, Litton maintained that he hasn’t yet felt the burden of managing the reins, despite his coach, Muhammad Salahuddin, saying that leading Bangladesh carries a lot of responsibility.
“Since Sir (Salahuddin) has said it, maybe he’s found some things before making that statement. I’ve never done this for such a long stretch. I’ve done particular series, and it didn’t feel that tough to me. But for someone doing it for a long time, maybe it does become difficult. At the same time, there are two things – you carry responsibility in your mind, and you must handle both. You won’t always get praise. You have to carry both praise and criticism,” he concluded.
