Proud Bangladesh captain Liton Das said that his team always had the belief to turn things around after the Tigers’ historic series win over Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Mahedi Hasan claimed 4-11 while Tanzid Hasan smashed 73 off 47 balls as Bangladesh beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the third and final T20I at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo to claim the series 2-1.
‘It is a proud moment for me as a captain. I am happy that the fans are also happy seeing us win a T20I series in Sri Lanka,’ said Liton following their first-ever series victory over the Lankans in the format.
It was the second T20I series win for Bangladesh under Liton after they clean swept West Indies 3-0 in the Caribbean last year.Â
‘Both series wins are huge for me. Beating the West Indies in their backyard is massive. They are a strong team in their conditions. It is the same in Sri Lanka. They are a balanced team as well,’ said Liton.
But Bangladesh had been experiencing tough challenges in recent times as they lost two consecutive series in the format to UAE and Pakistan.
‘We always try to give our 100 per cent in the middle. We train in the way that we can give 100 per cent in the middle. I always had the belief,’ said Liton.
Liton, himself, was under scrutiny as he failed to step up with his batting, but he has regained his form in the Sri Lanka series, where he scored 114 runs and was adjudged the player of the series.
The wicketkeeper-batter feels that with his performance in the series he has found new belief in himself.
‘I never had a shortage of belief in my 10 years at this level. I think hunger was a factor. I wasn’t scoring runs for a long time. I was looking for an opportunity to grab it. It was a plus point in the second T20I,’ he said.
‘I believe that winning changes the team’s mindset. We also won the second game by 83 runs, which is a huge achievement. The whole team had the confidence of winning if we played our best cricket,’ he added.
Liton also lauded the performance of Mahedi Hasan, who claimed his career-best figure upon returning to the side.
He said, ‘We felt that given the skills of Mahedi, he would be a perfect fit in the Colombo wicket. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t bowl well on other wickets. I had planned it before seeing the schedule that whoever plays in Colombo, the first name would be Mahedi.’
Bangladesh wrapped things up on a high in the tour with the T20 series win after losing in both the Test (1-0) and ODI (2-1) formats.
Looking back, Liton said that the batting could have made things different had it clicked.
‘We didn’t play bad cricket in all the formats. It looks different as we had some batting collapses,’ said Liton.
‘All the batters fell for 30-35 runs in the second Test, which had a good batting track. Someone had to play a big knock.
‘It was the same in the first ODI. We lost plenty of wickets in a collapse. We need to be more focused as a batting unit and take responsibility with our choices of shots; we will do better.’
Bangladesh returned home on Thursday but would have little time to rest, as the three-match T20 series against Pakistan starts on July 20.
Liton believed that they would have to be smart to beat Pakistan.
He said, ‘It won’t be easy taking on Pakistan in Mirpur. They have variety in their bowling attack. They also play a lot of BPL, so they know about our conditions quite well. I know that we can win matches against them if we play smart cricket.’