Can't fire every day: Soumya

Soumya Sarkar had scores of 14, 24, 1, 10 and 1 in the T20I Nidahas Trophy against hosts Sri Lanka and India in March this year. The 25-year-old left-hander batted in four different batting positions -- as an opener, a number three, four and five -- in the competition, which reflects how vulnerable his position and form is in the context of the team.

With the right-handed Liton Das providing new hope in the traditionally troublesome role of seasoned campaigner Tamim Iqbal's opening partner, it has become more challenging for Soumya to reclaim his preferred role as opener despite so far being more successful as an opener with 533 runs in 25 matches at an average of 21.32 and strike rate of 130.31.

Apart from the number six slot the southpaw has batted in every position from opener to number seven in his 33-match T20I career. Soumya however was not concerned about his place in the lineup but rather looking forward to getting back among the runs.

 "You have to play at any position if you want to play. If a team wants you to bat at number five you have to bat there. The main issue is you have to perform... you have to score runs. I have to look forward and there is no scope to look back at what has gone," said Soumya suring a press meet in Mirpur yesterday in response to a question about his thoughts regarding his batting position ahead of the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan.

"Everybody wants to perform well but it is not possible to do well everyday -- your desire will start diminishing if you try to make that happen. As I have been going through a bad patch I am now just focusing on hard work," he added.

When asked about the coming series against Afghanistan in India, he said: "We have three matches. The first target is to play good cricket and I also have a personal target. It will become easy if the start is good."

Soumya revealed that people always remind him about his form, or lack thereof, but he always tries to keep his focus solely on his practice.

"I didn't play well in the last few matches, so I am now putting in the effort to do well. With people talking about my form, I realise that I have been playing badly. It has reminded me of my poor form but I am trying to focus on my practice."