Liton Das has been named the captain of the Bangladesh team for the ODI series against India. The regular ODI captain, Tamim Iqbal, had earlier pulled out of the series because of a groin injury. He is also doubtful for the Test series that begins in Chattogram on December 14. Ahead of the series, Das thanked the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the opportunity and said that he will try his best.
“First of all, I would like to thank the BCB for giving me such a huge opportunity. I am very excited. I will try to give my best. Obviously, India are a big team but we are also a good team at home,” Liton told reporters ahead of the series today.
Taskin Ahmed has also been ruled out of the first ODI because of a back injury. Commenting on the injury, Das said that the team will miss both Tamim and Taskin but they have enough good players in their team.
“Definitely we will miss two of our important cricketers but we still have enough good players in our team,” the 28-year-old added.
Das has led Bangladesh once before in the T20 format back in 2021 in New Zealand after regular skipper Mahmudullah Riyad was injured. The Bangladesh opener termed his previous captaincy phase as ‘vacation’ as he was handed the role suddenly.
“The first one was more of a vacation (captaincy). I got the news of the captaincy this time as you guys got. Every player’s dream is to play for the national side and the biggest dream is to lead the country,” Das said.
Bangladesh beat India 2-1 in the last ODI series at home
Bangladesh will take some inspiration from their last home series against India in 2015 when they beat the ‘Men-in-Blue’ for the first time in an ODI series winning by 2-1. Left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman turned out to be a revelation in the seriea. Rahman was the leading wicket-taker picking up 13 wickets in three matches at an average of 11.53 and an economy of 5.11 with two five-wicket hauls to his name.
The first match of the ODI series will be played on Sunday in Dhaka starting at 11:30 AM (IST). The three-match ODI series will be followed by a two-match Test series starting on 14th December.
