Bangladesh wicket-keeper Liton Das said they need to keep up the winning spree in the longer version format to cement their place as a good Test nation.
The Tigers have won five out of the last eight Tests, including victories against teams like New Zealand and Pakistan. They swept a two-match Test series against Pakistan, a historical feat recently, which raised the bar as the people want them to emulate the success against neighbouring country India too.
Liton sees people’s expectations positively, saying that they will be inspired, rather than feeling pressure.
This (expectation) actually gives us inspiration. If we play well, we’ll be honoured and the people will know about us, Liton said here Tuesday after the practice session of Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
There can be nothing greater than this that people will know about you. I don’t think there is any pressure. We are playing Test cricket fairly well now. Maintaining consistency is the biggest challenge now.
Although he believes that the high expectations of people are justified following the historic success, he urged all to look ahead, forgetting the Pakistan series.
Citing the Pakistan series as past now, he said, we played very good cricket against Pakistan. But it is now past. It is very important to look forward to it. It would be great if we didn’t talk too much about the Pakistan series. As a player, that is past for me.
Liton would rather like to talk about the India series. Facing India at home is a tough test for any team and since every match will be played in different cities, which will be challenging.
But that is not one and only challenge, instead there is another problem with the ball, Liton said.
The Bangladesh team is habituated to playing Kookaburra ball, but they have to play SG ball in India.
Playing with the ball will be challenging in India. We will play with SG ball, which is a bit difficult. With Kookaburra, the new ball is difficult to play, but when the ball gets older, it is easy to play. But in SG, it is relatively easy to play with the new ball while it is difficult to play with the old ball.
Tests in India will be played with the SG ball, but the Kookaburra ball will be used in T20 cricket. Bangladesh is now practicing with SG Ball for Test cricket, while during training for T20 cricket, they are using Kookaburra.
On personal grounds, the Pakistan series was fantastic for Liton. He made 56 runs in the first Test, which Bangladesh won by 10 wickets, but in the second Test, he probably played his career-defining innings, a 138-run knock which helped Bangladesh win the Test despite being at a precarious 26-6.
It has been 10 years since I have played cricket. I have had some experience. Now it is the time to take responsibility. If we don’t take responsibility now, then when will we take responsibility, Liton said.
The Bangladesh team’s performance in the Pakistan series showed many improvements, but the top order struggle is still there.
We will try to improve in this area. Those plans are also discussed in the dressing room, he said.
Of late, Liton has looked aggressive at batting in Test cricket, a thing that the batters termed as ‘demand of time.’
It’s not that I play very attacking cricket. I try to score when I get the ball in my zone. And of course, in any format now, you will see that runs are much more important. If you think about the last game or the game before that, you will see that I couldn’t score as much as I like to do, he said.
Along with keeping that for a long time, he is also batting well at that moment. Liton played 43 Tests and played 32 Tests as a wicket keeper, scoring 2088 runs at an average of 40.94. Three out of his four centuries and 14 out of 17 fifties came when he was wicket-keeper. But he sees keeping only as a part of the game.
Wicket-keeping never helps batting. Wicket-keeping is a part of the game. It’s like fielding.
