Litton in focus as Tigers vie to level series

As Bangladesh take on hosts Sri Lanka in the second T20I in Dambulla today in a bid to level the three-match series, all eyes will be on skipper Litton Das, who has so far failed to inspire an underperforming side since assuming captaincy full-time in May.

Since being named captain of the T20I side till the next year's ICC T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, Litton has led Bangladesh to back-to-back series defeats against the UAE (2-1) and Pakistan (3-0) and a defeat today would hand him a third straight series defeat as captain.

The visitors are trailing the series 1-0 after losing the series opener in Pallekele by seven wickets on Thursday, which was also their sixth straight defeat in the format.

The woeful defeats have been an outcome of a collective failure of the team, and Litton's sporadic form with the bat has aggravated Bangladesh's problems.

The batter has made 147 runs in seven innings since gaining captaincy with a highest score of 48 off 30 against Pakistan, and has not scored a half-century in the format in his last 13 innings.

All seven of those matches were played in placid batting surfaces, and while fellow top-order batters Parvez Hossain Emon (216) and Tanzid Hasan Tamim (231) made good use of it, scoring at a rapid rate of 175.60 and 159.31 respectively, Litton, with his strike rate of 124.58, has more often than not squandered the early momentum.

In the first T20I against Sri Lanka, Emon and Tanzid once again gave Bangladesh a good start, making 46 runs in just five overs before Litton's 11-ball six to dampened their efforts.

Apart from Litton's own form, his captaincy has also been below-par so far. In just seven matches as captain, he has tried out 20 different players in the playing XI, and from the looks of it, he and the team management have not been able to lock down their best XI yet.

In the series opener, Bangladesh opting for four genuine openers in the starting XI, omitting Jaker Ali – the most consistent batter for Bangladesh right now across formats – and not picking pacer Mustafizur Rahman – the most experienced and versatile T20 bowler for the Tigers – were decisions that raised many eyebrows.

Bangladesh are likely to be surrounded with similar selection issues ahead of the crucial game at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium today, where they have never played a T20I and have only featured in five ODIs, having last played there in 2017.

For both Bangladesh and Litton, the challenge will be to address the issues swiftly, otherwise, they will sink deeper into the mire of their own making.