Crisis man Litton does it again
“I let someone play out a full over, and he got out on the very first ball,” Litton Das reflected on his decision to shield the tailenders as he valiantly steered Bangladesh from a top-order collapse into a competitive first-innings total against Pakistan yesterday.
The wicketkeeper-batter, who struck an invaluable century on the opening day of the second Test, turned down singles 26 times, carefully calculating how many deliveries his lower-order partners should face against specific bowlers, operating with the strategic precision of a chess master.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Litton stitched vital partnerships worth 162 runs for the seventh, eighth, and ninth wickets alongside Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam, respectively. Losing six wickets for just 116 runs, a directionless Bangladesh -- leading the series 1-0 -- were resurrected by Litton, whose saviour-like knock guided the team to 278 in Sylhet.
Both Taijul and Taskin perished in over’s first delivery. “Our tailenders are not adept enough for me to confidently give them six balls to face,” Litton told reporters after the day’s play, noting the burden rested largely on him.
The effort fit a familiar pattern. In Rawalpindi 20 months earlier, also against Pakistan, the situation was even more dire as Bangladesh had collapsed to 26 for six before Litton’s 138 and a match-winning 165-run stand with Mehidy Hasan Miraz carried them to 262.
Interestingly, of his six Test centuries, three have now come against Pakistan, all in crisis situations. In Chattogram in 2022, he made 114 after Bangladesh were 45 for four, leading to a competitive 330 total, while earlier that year in Mirpur he struck a career-best 141 against Sri Lanka after a collapse to 24 for five. His partnership with Mushfiqur Rahim dragged Bangladesh from the brink of disaster to a commanding 365.
But Litton rated his latest innings as “totally different”, having had no established partner to share the load. Walking in at 106 for four, he was soon left stranded with the tail. When Taijul walked out, Litton himself was batting on just two.
“To me, the innings against Sri Lanka was totally different because I had a partnership with Mushfiq bhai. When you have a proper batter as your partner, your mindset remains clear. Rawalpindi was similar since Miraz is a proper batter.”
His focus, he stressed, was never the personal milestone. “I am not overly worried about scoring centuries… My target was to somehow take the team to 200. Obviously, I had to fulfil that target, [knowing] my tail will not score runs; I have to do it,” he added.
When Litton hits his stride, he mesmerises onlookers with a display of aesthetic shots. This innings was no exception, filled with elegant timing and the sheer authority of stepping down the track to clear the boundary.
Beyond the flair, he repeated the formula of refusing singles for three or four balls of an over, finding boundaries when the opportunity arose, and retaining the strike. Pakistan responded with packed boundary fields and short-pitched probing, but he retained control throughout.
Earlier, both teams had wanted to bowl first as early conditions made batting difficult under overcast conditions. Most dismissals, aside from a couple of loose shots from debutant Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, came from quality bowling.
Litton predicts Sylhet conditions to remain influential. “The wicket becomes quite batting-friendly later on. If it is overcast in the morning [today], those first 10 overs will be crucial.”
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