Bangladesh open their Asia Cup campaign on 11 September against Hong Kong, but captain Litton Das has cautioned against overconfidence and urged his teammates to focus on “smart cricket” rather than just clearing the ropes.
For years, Bangladesh’s batting has been criticised for its lack of power hitting. Even though the Tigers have improved their six-hitting numbers this year averaging 7.73 per T20I compared with 5.08 in 2024 Litton believes brute force alone is not the answer.
“In the T20 format when you hit big sixes it is a plus point. You know that in any danger, in any situation, you can get out of it,” Litton said in Wednesday’s pre-match press conference in Abu Dhabi.
“But you have to understand that hitting sixes in every match will not work. You have to understand how big the boundary is, and what the opponent is like. I think we have to play smart cricket, not just try to hit sixes.”
Bangladesh’s recent form has been steady, with comfortable wins over the Netherlands in their last series. In those games the top order dominated, leaving little responsibility for the middle order. Critics argue that when tested, the middle order has not always stood up, but Litton expressed full confidence in his teammates.
“If you look at a few recent games we, the top order, have performed very well. The middle order hasn’t had much responsibility come to their hands,” he said.
“I believe whenever the responsibility comes to the middle order, they will stand up. They have done it before and they will do it again.”
On paper, Bangladesh faced the weakest team in the competition. Hong Kong only scraped through qualifying and have never won a match in the Asia Cup. But Bangladesh’s only previous T20I against them in Chattogram during the 2014 T20 World Cup ended in a shock defeat.
When asked if that past upset was on the players’ minds, Litton dismissed the idea.
“At this moment we are not in a position to think about anything negative. In the recent past we have played very good cricket. We will play to win the match. The thought of who we are playing against or what the opponent is like will never come to mind. Against any team we have to play 100 percent.”
Litton also reminded that cricket is never predictable:
“If you ask this question to any captain, he will say cricket is a game of uncertainty. In every match you have to play to your maximum capacity. No opponent is strong or weak, on a given day anyone can beat anyone.”
Afghanistan have already set the tone in the group stage with a 94-run win over Hong Kong, putting pressure on Bangladesh to win big and improve their net run rate to stay competitive with Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
But Litton made it clear that victory is the first priority:
“If we can win by a big margin, that’s very good. Like Afghanistan did, it’s a plus point for them. But any team can play bad cricket on a day. If they play well, then it will be tough for us to win by a big margin. Our main goal is to win the match.”
