Bangladesh Cricket Team have dropped senior batter Litton Das from the squad for the last ODI against Sri Lanka. Owing to his poor form, the opening batter has been released from the squad ahead of the series decider, which will be played on Monday (18th March).
Litton Das has been asked by the team management to play in the Dhaka Premier League. The batter has been going through the lean patch and has been bagging consistent failures, which is the biggest cause of concern for the Bangladesh team.
The ongoing ODI series has been extremely torrid for Litton Das. The opening batter bagged ducks in both games. He looked clueless with the bat and because of his poor form, Bangladesh are not able to get off the brisk starts in the games.
Litton Das couldn’t get going in the T20I series against Sri Lanka as well. The opening batter registered scores of 0, 36, and 7 in the three matches. Since the ICC World Cup 2023, he has gone through a torrid run with the bat and hasn’t been able to score runs at all.
Since the World Cup, Litton Das has scored just 313 runs in 14 ODIs that he has played at an average of 24.07. He has crossed the 50-run mark just twice in that time, which speaks about the poor run that he has been going through with the bat. He would now be hoping to get some runs under his belt in the Dhaka Premier League.
This is the first time since 2021, that Litton Das has been dropped from Bangladesh. He was left out of the T20I series against Pakistan in 2021. To make a comeback this time around would be tough for him, considering the kind of competition that is there.
Jaker Ali replaces Litton Das in the Bangladesh squad for the third ODI against Sri Lanka
Bangladesh has included keeper-batter Jaker Ali in the squad for the last ODI against Sri Lanka in place of Litton Das. The young batter was impressive in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. He scored 68 runs in the first game and also has a decent List A record, scoring 1918 runs in 84 matches.
Gazi Ashraf Hossain, the chairman of the Bangladesh selection panel talked about the replacement, saying that Jaker Ali’s addition will provide the team with balance in the middle order. He stated:
“With the series now hanging in the balance, we believe Jaker Ali’s addition will provide the team with more options and flexibility in the middle order. Considering Litton’s recent performance in white-ball cricket, we opted for this change, mindful of the availability of two other capable openers within the squad.”
Bangladesh has Anamul Haque and Tanzid Hasan as two openers in the team. It is likely that one of them will be opening the innings alongside Soumya Sarkar. Whereas Jaker Ali might bat in the middle order for the last match of the series.
Bangladesh squad for 3rd ODI
Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Anamul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Tanzid Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Mustafizur Rahman, Jaker Ali
