“First of all, it is very difficult to keep [wicket for] 50 overs and then come and open the batting,” Simmons said. “[Litton] is also one of our better players of spin bowling. The middle order has been one of our Achilles heels. So, him going down there with his experience and his skills, hopefully we can get what we need there.”
While Bangladesh have dropped Jaker Ali and Nurul Hasan, they have retained Mahidul Islam Ankon, who batted at No. 5 against West Indies last October. Ankon made 69 runs in the three matches, hardly pushing the scoring rate, as he tried to cement his place in the side.
Litton last batted at No 5 in the 2019 ODI World Cup, when he started with an unbeaten 94 against West Indies in Taunton. He has, however, batted in the top four for most of his ODI career. Simmons said that they didn’t have to work hard to convince Litton to take up the role.
“He has been comfortable batting anywhere,” Simmons said. “I think he’s a lot more relaxed with his game and he sees it as an opportunity to do what the team needs of him. We didn’t have to convince Litton for anything. All we asked was, ‘this is what the team needs’, and he was happy to do it. He is happy to do anything for the team, when he is captain, he’s happy to do it for us now. So, we didn’t have to convince him for anything.”
“We finished well against West Indies and we don’t want to go backwards from there. Mind you, the wickets look a lot better than they were for that series so the main thing is to look at progress, which is to bat the way we batted in that in that last game.”