Liton Das鈥檚 form in Twenty20 Internationals in 2024 has been a point of concern for many but the Bangladesh team management seemed unbothered by it as assistant coach Nic Pothas expressed his belief in the batter on Monday.
Bangladesh, who are currently 2-0 up in their five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, will take on the visitors in the third game today at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram, where they will eye to seal the series in the bag.
Despite getting two comfortable victories in the first two matches, Liton鈥檚 form at the top is a concern for the Tigers as he was out for just one in the first game and in the second, played 25 balls to score just 23 before getting out unconvincingly.
Liton鈥檚 form is especially worrying considering the fact that the T20 World Cup is knocking on the door with the tournament now less than a month away.
Pothas, though, was not worried with the opener鈥檚 recent outings and said that he was just an innings away from scoring regularly again.
鈥楲iton is a world class cricketer. He鈥檚 one innings away from having an unbelievable World Cup. So, there鈥檚 no doubt that Liton Das is going to score a lot of runs as he has done in the past,鈥� the Bangladesh assistant coach told the media on Monday.
鈥楬e adds so much value to our side. What he does in the field for us, what he offers to our group as a senior player, he does so much more than what you see.鈥�
Liton, who had statistically been Bangladesh鈥檚 best T20I batter in 2022 and 2023, has struggled for form this year, scoring just 67 runs in five innings.
For Bangladesh, though, Liton鈥檚 form is not the only concern as their whole batting has seemed unprepared for modern-day T20Is, and they missed the chance to bat first and test their mettle in the first two games despite winning the toss, which saw skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto being put in question.
Pothas said that he believed Shanto did the right thing as their goal before preparing for the T20 World Cup through experimentation is to win the series.
鈥楾he first thing during a series is to win the series. Once you鈥檝e done that,聽then聽we can start playing around with other things. You know what it鈥檚 like? We experiment because you want us to experiment. Something goes wrong, and then you鈥檒l hammer us for experimenting. So, you鈥檙e never going to win.聽We have to do what we think is聽the聽right聽thing to do聽in that situation,鈥� he said.
鈥楽o, he [Shanto] did what he thought was best for our team鈥攖o win a game of cricket on that wicket.鈥�
On that note, Pothas also hoped to seal the series in the third game of the series.
鈥楾here are still three games left in the series. So, in any series you play, the first goal is to win the series. So, you have to do that job well聽first聽before you start experimenting with things and doing other things,鈥� the Bangladesh assistant coach said.
