Liton Surpasses Shakib and Riad on a Record-Breaking Day

Renowned for his natural batting flair, Litton Das has long been praised for his stylish stroke play. This right-handed batter, who dazzles the crowd with his eye-catching boundaries, has now been achieving one milestone after another in international T20 cricket.

In Bangladesh’s Asia Cup match against Hong Kong, Litton played a blazing innings to become the second-highest run-scorer for Bangladesh in T20Is, surpassing Mahmudullah Riyad. Ahead of him now stands only Shakib Al Hasan, and it’s only a matter of time before Liton overtakes him as well.

Chasing a target of 144 at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Litton gave Bangladesh a flying start. He reached his fifty off just 29 balls and finished unbeaten on 59 from 39 balls, steering the team to the brink of victory. With this innings, he surpassed Mahmudullah’s record of 2,444 runs.

Mahmudullah had accumulated those runs in 141 matches and 130 innings, while Litton achieved the feat in just 111 matches and 109 innings, with a current average of 24 and 15 fifties.

At the top of this list remains Shakib Al Hasan, who scored 2,551 runs in 127 innings but is currently away from the national team. Litton’s consistent performances now put him on the verge of topping the run charts.

Litton also rose to the top of Bangladesh’s T20I six-hitting list. During the 16th over of the match against Hong Kong, he smashed a six off Yasim Murtaza, breaking Mahmudullah’s record. On the very next ball, he hit a four to complete his fifty.

This six was Litton’s 78th in T20Is, surpassing Mahmudullah’s 77 sixes in 130 innings. No other Bangladeshi batter has hit more than 70 sixes in T20Is; only Soumya Sarkar (55 sixes in 86 innings) and Shakib Al Hasan (53 sixes in 127 innings) are in the 50-plus club.

Another milestone came through his partnership with Tawhid Hridoy. They put together a 95-run stand, the highest for Bangladesh in T20Is for any wicket. Previously, the record was an 82-run partnership between Shakib Al Hasan and Sabbir Rahman (2016 Asia Cup vs Sri Lanka) and a 57-run partnership between Mahmudullah and Afif (2022 Asia Cup).

In runs, sixes, and partnerships, Litton is breaking record after record, stepping into a domain once dominated by Shakib Al Hasan. His batting has become a symbol of record-breaking performances.

After the victory, captain Litton Das said, “Winning the first match was very important. We’ve played good cricket in the last few series, but there’s always more pressure in the Asia Cup (laughs). We played well today. Our pace attack has performed very well in recent years. We were looking for a leg-spinner, and Rishad has been doing well over the past two to three years. The wicket wasn’t easy, every ball was tough to hit. The ground is big, so we had to rely on one or two runs per ball.”