‘The idea is to play as freely as possible’
The upcoming T20 World Cup in Oman and UAE will present Bangladesh's dashing opener Liton Das with a chance to play his first-ever T20 World Cup, and given his sheer ability to play fluently all around the wicket, he may well become the X-factor the Tigers will be looking at to provide the necessary afterburners at the top of the order. The Tigers' opener discussed his expectations for the upcoming tournament and on batting without adherence to any particular ploy during an interview with The Daily Star's Abdullah Al Mehdi.
The Daily Star (DS): Your role and responsibility as the Tigers' main opener?
Liton Das (LD): You have to see that T20 is a game of very limited time frame. The team wants its opener to give a good start and I feel that my role is to give a good start to the team.
DS: Will there be an anchor role or aggressive intent from both openers at the World Cup?
LD: The thing is that everyone plays according to the options that the match situation presents. There is no strict framework here or script here on how one will play today or tomorrow. We play according to the situation and it's just not me but anyone else in the team.
DS: What are your remarks on batting coach Ashwell Prince saying you can be a top 10 batter in the world in all formats?
LD: It's very difficult to define that actually since my career has just begun a while back. It's not even that I am a very good and very successful player. What he said, it's something that will come much later [in my career]. To prove something like that, I will have to put up a lot of good performances. There is no alternative to performances so there is no point in me thinking like that about what others are saying because at the end of the day it's me who will have to perform and I will have to do all the work required to do that.
DS: Would it be difficult to adjust to livelier wickets at WC after playing in Mirpur?
LD: We are going there seven or eight days in advance and we will be doing a camp there so I think by that time we will have adjusted. Also, we have played at Abu Dhabi before. So I don't think we will have that much problem in terms of being able to adjust.
DS: What are the expectations and challenges at T20 WC?
LD: International cricket is all about challenges. There is no time to relax. As per as expectations go, there is nothing better than giving your team something good. There is nothing bigger than the team winning and the target will be to perform in a way which helps the team and contributes to the team winning matches.
DS: Are you more aware now of your past mistakes?
LD: Every player makes mistakes. No player can go out there and say that I will score 10 runs tomorrow or play a faultless innings. Someday a batsman will keep making mistakes on his way to a hundred while another batsman, who has been batting really well, will get out. Cricket is that kind of a game that doing too much research on it or thinking too much on these aspects can be foolhardy. The idea is to play as freely as possible.