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Liton Das is an excellent tactician and skilled in every aspect of captaincy, but he would need extensive support to do what he considered a very tough job, said the senior assistant coach of the Bangladesh national team, Mohammad Salahuddin on Sunday. 

Liton was announced as the new T20 captain of the Bangladesh cricket team ahead of the back-to-back tours to the UAE and Pakistan. 

The wicketkeeper-batter has been going through a slump in batting and was subsequently dropped from the Champions Trophy squad. 

The national team began the training camp on May 5, but remained almost ‘closed doors’ as the journalists were given a limited window to cover the practice. 

On Sunday, for the first time since the camp began, a representative came to speak to the media at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, where Salahuddin had to face several questions regarding the new  captain. 

Salahuddin reminded that captaincy is a challenging role for anyone, and in a country like Bangladesh, it gets more difficult.  

‘One big issue is that we don’t perform together as a team,’ he said. ‘That’s the biggest challenge. If we had more consistent performers, captaincy would become a lot easier. We admit that our performance is not consistent; that’s a major challenge. It goes up and down too often. And as a nation, we’re very emotional. One day we play well, the next day badly, then good again. But maturity will come, today or tomorrow.’

But he showed full support to Liton. 

‘He’s very good in every aspect of a captain, like how to move the team forward and how to be tactically good. [At the end of the day] a captain runs a team. We, who are beside him, need to support him and give him the freedom. Then he will do well,’ said the coach. 

‘No leader can be good instantly, and not everyone can be a leader. When someone does the captaincy, he represents the whole of Bangladesh. There is a lot of pressure upon him. It’s our ethical duty to support him,’ added Salahuddin. 

Salahuddin also mentioned what he believes to be Liton’s main strength as a captain.

He said, ‘As a captain, Liton is a very good tactician; that’s his strength. He’s got a clear idea about bowlers’ strengths. He can analyse the opponent well. He has a clear idea about how to set up a field, how to move the game, and how to move the batting. Handling the bowlers and the team, he has a great idea.’ 

Salahuddin, who mentioned that the current form might be one of the weaknesses of Liton, also said that there’s always scope for improvement. 

He said, ‘Everyone has areas to improve, not just as a captain but also as a batter and even as a human being. The moment someone thinks there’s nothing left to improve, that’s when their downfall begins.’

‘Liton still has room for improvement in all aspects. From what I saw of him before to what I saw in the last series as captain — to me, it felt like night and day. Even if you listen to him talk now, you’ll notice that a lot has changed,’ he added. 

Salahuddin also reminded his pupil that being captain had its own challenges, and Liton had to overcome those too. 

‘He has to handle all the pressure himself. That pressure will always be there, and a captain has to face it. He has to handle the media, manage the players— everything.’