Litton Das: Test expertise offers us benefit over Afghanistan
Bangladesh captain Litton Das believes their expertise will give them the sting over Afghanistan within the one-off Test in Dhaka that begins on Wednesday. Litton is standing in for the common captain Shakib Al Hasan who’s out with a finger damage. His reverse quantity, Hashmatullah Shahidi, can also be making his captaincy debut after being appointed two years in the past.
The different similarity between the 2 captains is the absence of their finest bowler, respectively, from their assaults. While Shakib is out for a couple of weeks with the damage, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has rested Rashid Khan “to prioritize his long-term fitness”. Litton performed down Rashid’s absence though the legspinner took 11 wickets in the one Test between the 2 sides 4 years in the past. He mentioned that Bangladesh’s maturity in Tests will preserve them forward of the guests.
“We will take them as seriously as we would have done with Rashid in their team,” Litton mentioned. “Our last Test was in April after which we played a white-ball series. We play a lot of Tests, which gives us the advantage over them. It gives us a better level of maturity in this format. We don’t have a great idea about them. They play a lot of ODIs and T20s, which makes it hard to judge them in Tests. We have a plan in our mind, and if we can execute it, we will get a good result.”
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi mentioned that they may miss Rashid, however they’ve choices in each the tempo and spin departments to make up for his absence. He mentioned that legspinner Izharulhaq Naveed, who impressed throughout final season’s Big Bash League, may step up
“It will be challenging. We all know that Rashid is one of the main bowler in our team. He did very well in the past in Test matches. Still we have another option like wristspinners and they will perform well Insha Allah.
“He (Izharulhaq) performed good cricket. He performed within the Big Bash. T20 cricket is completely different. He did superb previously in age-group cricket additionally and so he might be one of many largest star in future for Afghanistan.
“I think both Shakib and Rashid are rested. We have good quality players and we have good quality players, and other options to win the game for us and I think that would be the point,” mentioned Shahidi.
He was additionally assured that even when Mirpur dished out a greenish pitch, Afghanistan had the tempo firepower to benefit from it. “I think we saw the pitch today and they made it green and that’s fine for us because we have good seamers and we have good spinning options as well so we will be thinking of our own strength and what we have and what we have to work and we are ready for everything,” mentioned Shahidi.
Litton countered the purpose by saying that they wished to problem themselves on a inexperienced wicket in Mirpur, having performed on raging turners right here for many of its existence. “Mirpur has had a turning wicket for most of the time. We want to challenge ourselves on a grassy pitch. We want to see how we can survive here and play a long innings.
“It is kind of regular to need to play on an excellent wicket. We even have a top quality tempo assault. You would want 5 bowlers on such a wicket too. This is what I want,” said Litton.
He will be Bangladesh’s 12th Test captain and although it is a stopgap option, Litton believes that he has been helping out in the field as a wicketkeeper for quite some time. Litton made 800 runs last year, only the third Bangladeshi to reach that landmark in a calendar year in Tests. But there’s still some concern about his conversion rate.
“I’ve been doing this within the area for a very long time, so it isn’t actually a serious problem. I should run issues within the area. There’s a ‘captain’ added subsequent to my title. As for my batting, you will need to have the main target. It helps you learn the sport higher. When I get into that mindset, I need to play an enormous innings,” he said.
As for Afghanistan’s batting, Shahidi has to bank on memory, and recent white-ball form. “We have batsmen that we will belief. They did effectively previously. We even have somebody who performed good cricket in ODIs not too long ago – Ibrahim Zadran. Rahmat Shah is doing effectively. I scored a double-hundred within the final Test in opposition to Zimbabwe.
“We have other promising batsmen also and I believe our batsmen will do very good and we will keep improving day by day and match by match in batting department.”
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84