Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar are considered to be two of the most talented opening batters Bangladesh has produced in the last 7 years.
Liton Das was rated as a future prospect during his initial years by many, including the former captain Mashrafe Mortaza. Same goes for Soumya, as he has shown glimpses of his classy approach and played some dominating innings in 2015.
Although both of them have some brilliant knocks like Liton's 176 against Zimbabwe, 121 against India and Soumya's 127* against Pakistan, both of them still have a lot of limitations after about 6 years of international cricket.
In 2021, Liton Das has scored 4, 6, 0, 5, 1, 33, 15, 6, 10 and 5 in 10 T20I innings. His problem of being trapped in front failing to judge the length of the ball in time is getting exposed. He often plays a premeditated shot when under a bit of pressure, and ends up giving his wicket.
On the other hand, the last 10 T20I innings of Soumya Sarkar are 5, 4, 5, 16, 8, 2, 0, 2, 64 and 8, which means he has crossed the 20-run mark once in 10 innings. The inconsistency of Soumya Sarkar is a matter of real concern for Bangladesh. He can time the ball well lifting it over the infield, but he ends up falling in the trap of the bowler and giving away his wicket cheaply.
Since Tamim Iqbal has made himself unavailable in T20Is for the time being, it is a big opportunity for both these batters to show up with all the experience they have. But in the last 11 Bangladeshi innings, the opening partnership crossed the 25-run mark only thrice. In each case, Mohammad Naim Sheikh scored more than 20.
The statistics make it clear that neither Liton nor Soumya has been the most impactful opener for Bangladesh in the recent past. Even in the 1st T20 World Cup match against Scotland, both of them got out cheaply, having scored just 5 runs each.
In order to turn things in their favour, Liton and Soumya will have to analyse their own mistakes.
If Liton can confidently commit himself to the strokes avoiding being in two minds whether to be on the front foot or the back foot, he can improve his strike rotation. Once he gets set he can focus on his strokeplay more frequently.
After hitting a boundary or two, if Soumya Sarker commits himself to rotate the strike and take a quick single, his chances of getting out will be lower.
Both Liton and Soumya should come up with the solutions in order to help Bangladesh have a great start to their T20 innings.
