Litton Das

Litton Das made his way into the Bangladesh senior sides following his exploits for Abahani in the Dhaka Premier League, and Rangpur Division in the National Cricket League in 2014-15, where he was the top scorer.

Perhaps the first wicketkeeper-batter in the country good enough to be seen as a long-term successor to Mushfiqur Rahim, he emerged from the northern district of Dinajpur, around 330km from the capital, Dhaka, beginning his adolescent life as a young cricketer at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan and impressing with his heavy run-scoring in schools and age-group cricket. Litton was picked in Bangladesh's Under-19 side in 2012, the year after he made his first-class debut, and over two U-19 World Cups, that year and in 2014, he cumulatively averaged over 50, with a century and three fifties.

A compact batter with a good defence and flair, Litton made 44 in his first Test, against India in Fatullah in mid-2015, and followed that up with a fifty that helped fetch a first-innings lead against South Africa in Chattogram. In Bloemfontein two years on, he top-scored for Bangladesh with 70 after the home side racked up a massive total. He made 94 against Sri Lanka in the match after that, but his first Test hundred took nearly another four years to materialise, coming late in 2021 against Pakistan, in Chattogram again. He top-scored in the second innings of that game too, with 59, but Pakistan won thanks to a feeble performance by the other Bangladesh batters. That match came near the start of a nine-Test purple patch, spanning about 11 months running from mid-2021, in which Litton averaged a little under 60, making three hundreds and five fifties, including 102 after Bangladesh followed on in Christchurch.

In the thrilling ODI Asia Cup final in Dubai in 2018 that India won off the last ball, Litton set up the game, scoring 121 in an innings where eight of his team-mates failed to get double figures. The following year, he played a co-starring role in the ODI World Cup win over West Indies in Taunton, making 94 in a massive partnership with Shakib Al Hasan.

In the BPL, he has been a fixture for Comilla Victorians, featuring in three title-winning sides in his first six seasons with them and being their top scorer in 2022-23, one of those title-winning years.