On the second day of the second Test at Mirpur, Litton Kumar Das made a spectacular comeback with a century against Ireland, while all eyes were on Mushfiqur Rahim’s century in his 100 Test match.
Litton scored just 335 runs at an average of 22.26 in the next eight Test matches after his 138 against Pakistan in Rawalpindi in August 2024, raising serious concerns about his red-ball cricket form.
After suffering an injury during the Asia Cup, Litton missed the white-ball series against Afghanistan. However, it was likely a good thing because he was able to get his act together during that time.
Sohel Islam, the head coach of the Bangladesh Tigers, told Cricbuzz that his approach to injury recovery is quite different from others’, which works well for him because he is more focused on time than anything else.
“He works with his basics and what we call primary basics when he starts practicing following any injury and unlike others don’t try to hurry up things,” stated Sohel, who is in charge of a program meant to get national cricket players ready when they are sidelined.
“He (Litton) comes to the indoor [nets] and drives against over-arm throws and these are the things a batsman usually does when he is on primary stage,” he stated.
“He is a timer and for him his grip is very important and he needs to have that feel considering he doesn’t hold the grip very tightly or softly so he got to have that feel and his preparation is completely different from others,” he explained.
“When he gets the feel he understands that he is getting back to rhythm and that is very necessary for him to shine in the middle,” he stated.
With his powerful knock and restrained aggression, which included some well timed drives, cuts, and draw shots, the fashionable right-hander undoubtedly stole the show.
In the sixth-wicket partnership with Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Litton, who was ultimately dismissed for a brilliant 128 off 192 balls that included eight fours and four sixes, contributed 123 runs to guarantee Bangladesh won the day.
Litton never appeared to be out of form during this period when he was unable to convert his starts, Sohel continued, adding that he is benefiting from batting with a different mentality.
“I think he was not out of form (during the last one year), at any point it was just that he could not make it big and what I feel is that he tries to bat in the same tempo for the whole time and it won’t work in longer-format cricket and that is something he probably worked on in this innings and it paid off,” Sohel said.
“When he bats in white-ball cricket, his acceleration always increases. For example, in ODI cricket, his batting tempo is relatively constant, but in T20I cricket, his acceleration only increases. In Test cricket, however, things are completely different. In Test cricket, you must play differently at different times. For example, you must pace your innings according on the demands of the scenario; you must occasionally slow down and accelerate at other times, but you cannot always play the same way.
It will be hard to stay in the game if you attempt to play at the same speed all the time, and that’s probably why he couldn’t translate those starts. His innings was quite balanced in this match, and he will be more successful in longer-format cricket if he can bat at a similar pace,” he continued.
India
