Litton Das

A solid and technically sound wicketkeeper-batter, Litton Das was seen by many in Bangladesh as the long-term successor for Mushfiqur Rahim behind the stumps, a player who could add value of his own while also extending his senior player’s career by easing his burden. A fine player on his own terms, Litton has carved out a role as an opener in the white ball formats for Bangladesh, and has become an important lynchpin of a consistently improving team in the longest form of the game.

Through the ranks

Litton Das began his career in the famous BKSP youth sports programme, which has produced some of Bangladesh’s finest cricketers including Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim. With his foundations set in those years, Litton represented Bangladesh at the U-19 World Cup in both 2012 and 2014, and became a regular performer for Rangpur Division in the domestic circuit.

Litton’s numbers were impressive in his domestic career, and always made him a favourite to step into Mushfiqur’s shoes when he decided to move on from the gloves. He was rewarded with debuts in all three formats in 2015 at just the age of 20, as he played against India in Tests and ODIs in June that year, before being rewarded a T20 callup against South Africa the following month.

However, Mushfiqur’s presence as captain meant Litton had to wait until 2017 for a long run in the team, when Rahim became a pure batter and left the stumper position vacant for Litton to grab with both hands.

Becoming a familiar face

Litton Das’s consistent run finally resulted in a breakout in 2018, where he was one of the stars for Bangladesh as they came within inches of beating India to claim their first Asia Cup trophy.

Litton scored his maiden ODI century in the final, putting together an incredible innings of 121 off 117 balls on a difficult wicket where the second-highest score in the innings was 33. An incredible performance would end in heartbreak for Litton and Bangladesh, as India completed the chase on the last ball of their innings. Litton Das would win player of the match for his efforts.

Coming into his own

2020 would be the season where Litton finally began to piece things together and become a supremely reliable figure for Bangladesh. He struck Bangladesh’s highest ever individual score in an ODI when he scored 176 runs against Zimbabwe, which was also a part of Bangladesh’s highest-ever ODI partnership of 292 runs, alongside Tamim Iqbal.

The end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 saw Litton’s strongest run in Test cricket, as he scored his maiden century against Pakistan before travelling to New Zealand and notching another ton there as well. His strong performances in this period saw him rise to 12th in the ICC batting rankings, which is the highest a Bangladesh player has ever been in that leaderboard.

He was appointed vice-captain for the Tigers later in 2022, and has served as captain for them in both ODIs and Tests, including leading them to a series victory over India in ODIs in 2022.

Lately, he provided a very significant contribution in Bangladesh's historic Test series whitewash win in Pakistan, scoring 138 runs after Bangladesh were floundering at 26/6 in the second Test match. He received player of the match accolades as Bangladesh won the series.