Bangladesh captain Liton Das addressed the media during a pre-match conference in Dhaka today. Photo: Collected

DHAKA, July 19, 2025 (BSS) - Bangladesh captain Liton Das insisted that they 
are not concerned about Pakistan players' knowledge on the condition of 
Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium due to their experience of 
playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on regular basis. 

As many as nine players of Pakistan have the experience of playing BPL in the 
last season and also some of them played in Dhaka Premier League (DPL) in the 
past.

Liton said while Pakistan players knew adequately about Mirpur condition, 
they also know the weakness and strength of Pakistan due to sharing the 
dressing room with them during BPL and DPL.

"The fun of franchise cricket is that you have the opportunity to play with 
all the cricketers in the world, you have the opportunity to make friends," 
Liton said while addressing the media during pre-match conference here today.
 
"If you only stuck in the national team, then you will not know about the 
outside cricketers, you will not be able to share the dressing room."

The three-match T20 series opening game between the two sides will be held 
tomorrow (Sunday) at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Miprur. 

Liton believes that experience in franchise cricket will be useful for both 
teams, "It will be useful from both sides. Just as they know our strengths 
and weaknesses, we also know their strengths and weaknesses."

"So I don't think there will be much of a problem. But parity is a very good 
thing."

Bangladesh will play all its matches against Pakistan in Mirpur. The topic of 
the pitch in Mirpur also came to the fore because it is hard to predict how 
it will behave. 

The series against Australia and New Zealand before the 2021 T20 World Cup 
was a real death trap for batters.

Taking the advantage of the pitch, Bangladesh outclassed Australia by 4-1 and 
beat New Zealand by 3-2.

But the series victory mattered little for Bangladesh, as the batters faced 
serious problem when they play in other part of the world.
 
Several cricketers then said that Mirpur wicket almost ruined their batting 
skill.
 
However, when asked if the career achievements of many batters have gone down 
after playing those two series, Liton said, "I also agree. (After playing the 
2021 New Zealand-Australia series) the careers of many cricketers have gone 
down as batter. If I were a bowler, may be my career would have been rich."

Later, however, Liton clarified that he was specifically talking about those 
two series. 

He is the third highest run-getter among Bangladesh batters in T20Is at the 
Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. He has scored 510 runs at a strike rate of over 130 in 
18 matches.
 
Mahmudullah, who is above him, has scored 804 runs at a strike rate of 119.11 
in 39 matches. And Shakib Al Hasan has scored 547 runs in 34 matches at a 
strike rate of 101 in Mirpur.

Liton also said that it is not always the case that batters have problems, 
"It is not that batters always have problems. Let me make it clear, batters 
have had a little problem in certain two series."

When asked if he does anything extra to adapt to Mirpur, Liton said: "I have 
been playing like this for 10 years. How many times I would have to set 
myself?"

"I cannot perform consistently, yes that's a problem. I am always trying to 
score runs consistently. I always try to practice consistently and will try 
to do it in future too."