Liton ends best-ever year on a high

Liton Das started the year at Mount Maunganui. He scored 86 runs coming at number six, helping Bangladesh to 458, a total that would lay the foundation for their biggest-ever Test win.

In his last innings of the year, Liton hit 73 against India at Mirpur, which has now put his team six wickets away from a historic win against India, their first-ever in the format.

In the two innings, while being played in different contexts and conditions, there is an eerie similarity as on both occasions, the feeling left after his dismissal is that he left behind a Test ton in the middle.

In between, Liton reached the height that no other Bangladesh batter ever reached. Across formats, he has scored 1,921 runs in 50 innings, a total that is the highest for Bangladesh in a calendar year.

Until Liton, Mushfiqur Rahim held the crown for that title with 1,657 runs in 2018, a total that is well behind the Bangladesh Test vice-captain’s.

Reaching that peak, Liton is the second-highest run-scorer across the formats this year in world cricket, only behind Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who has 2,423 runs this year. In his 50 innings this year, Liton has gone past the 50-mark 16 times, scoring three centuries and 13 fifties. He could have had more as he was dismissed in the 40s four times, and beyond 80 thrice.

He also could have been the first Bangladeshi to reach 2,000 runs in a calendar year, but a dull India series where his first fifty came in the final one, meant he fell 79 runs short.