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Bangladesh batting coach Prince expects Liton Das to open in T20Is against New Zealand

Mayank Kumar∙ Aug 29 2021, 5:20 PM | timer 2 Min Read

Litton Das, who has made a comeback in the Bangladesh T20I squad, could well be in contention for one of the opening slots in the upcoming series against New Zealand, batting coach Ashwell Prince has said. However, he also highlighted “strong competition” for the opening slots in the series against the Blackcaps.

Litton missed the last series against Australia due to an injury and after Cricket Australia and BCB denied him entry into the biosecure bubble.

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Bangladesh employed the pair of Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim in his absence, but their partnership did not flourish at the top of the order. They failed to provide either a solid or rapid start to the hosts and their highest partnership stood at 42 which came in the last game of the series.

They also struggled to hit boundaries against the new ball, but Prince did not raise it as a point of concern due to “tough conditions” against Australia. He pointed out that the balls were not coming onto bats and hence it was tough to score quickly as it would have been on better pitches. 

"Personally I am not really concerned about the opening batsmen. I think we had one or two good partnerships in Zimbabwe but conditions were tough against Australia. It is not easy to score boundaries frequently as you would in pitches where the ball is coming on. Adapting to the conditions is important. Partnership would be important. I think we have a strong competition in the opening position. I am sure Liton Das will get an opportunity in this position, as well,” Prince said.

Prince said that the conditions are unlikely to change but chose to bank on the “experience” of senior players to overcome those hurdles in the upcoming series against New Zealand.

"I am expecting similar conditions against New Zealand. The batsmen from Australia series had a nice discussion yesterday, sharing with guys like Liton Das and Mushfiqur (Rahim) who didn't play in that series. These are experienced guys but they shared what worked and what we like to improve on from the Australia series, taking it into the New Zealand series coming up," he said.

The series between Bangladesh and New Zealand is scheduled to start on September 1 in Dhaka and the hosts have all the reasons to start favourites in the series after their first series win over Australia earlier this month.

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