DHAKA, Jan 12, 2025 (BSS)-Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) selection panel
chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu laid emphasize on bringing back Liton Das
into the International cricket more strongly, considering the fact that the
opposition analysts figured out his problems acutely.

"We have our own analysts and experts but from what we have seen that the
opposition analysts became successful against Liton Das with their plan. It's
because that Liton's pattern of dismissals have been similar for quite some
times now," Ashraf told the reports today while announcing the team for the
Champions Trophy.

The selection panel dropped Liton from the squad after he managed just 13
runs in his last seven ODI innings. If his last five ODI innings is taken
into consideration, he scored just six runs which included three ducks.

In fact he has been struggling in white-ball formats for a while and his last
fifty in ODIs came in the 2023 World Cup in India. That tournament too was
also a poor by his own standards.

"This is the high time to keep him out of the squad as he needs to find out a
formula to break the pattern of his dismissals," Ashraf, also a former
Bangladesh captain revealed.

"Taking him out of the side doesn't mean he is out of the national team. We
have many matches ahead and our experts will definitely get a chance to work
with him to make his weak areas stronger. We want him to comeback more
strongly."

Liton Das also had a poor outing in ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL)
but in the last match game of Dhaka Capitals he struck 43 ball-73 to hint a
revive of his form. Dhaka though lost the game.

Ashraf believes they have given Liton enough chance to get back to the form
but his poor performance negatively affected Bangladesh's batting.

"We always want our openers to take the advantage of the powerplay but in the
recent time, Liton Das was not successful in doing that. In West Indies where
we scored 300-plus runs, you can see his strike-rate or that he could not
occupy the crease," Ashraf said.

"If we want to see the bigger picture, his batting style currently brings
pressure on his [batting] partner and number three is being exposed. We still
kept our confidence on him and gave him chances in a lot of matches," said
Ashraf, adding that only they gave Liton long run due to the confidence on
his talent and ability.

'But it's time to move on. Even when a batter is out of form, he can get
selected in the team from a position of confidence. From that point of view,
he is not in that position [of confidence]."

Also the pair of Soumya Sarkar and Tanzid Hasan Tamim did their job perfectly
at the top of the order, helping selectors make their task easier.

"Soumya Sarkar and Tanzid Hasan Tamim are doing well as a pair. They are the
ones who are going to start the innings, an information that we got from the
captain after interacting with him. In fact, there is no place for Liton in
the first eleven," Ashraf said.

"Neither Liton's class, nor his talent is under question but when someone is
going through a form crisis as happened to Liton, we need to bring him out of
that crisis. He needs to go back to drawing room to work on his weaknesses."