Bangladesh’s think tank moved Litton Das down to number five because their middle order had become a genuine weakness, not because his opening spot was safe. Phil Simmons made the call before the Pakistan series, and Mohammad Salahuddin has since backed it, pointing to Litton’s calm head against both pace and spin. His 94 not out at the same position during the 2019 World Cup remains the clearest evidence the theory already worked once. Whether it holds again against Pakistan is a different question.
Bangladesh’s Middle-Order Gamble Explained
Phil Simmons made the decision himself ahead of Bangladesh’s home series against Pakistan in March, and he was direct about the thinking behind it. He explained that keeping wicket for fifty overs and immediately opening the batting afterward puts an unreasonable strain on any player. Bangladesh’s middle order had also been misfiring for months once Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah stopped being regular picks there.
Litton offered no resistance to the switch. Simmons described him as comfortable batting anywhere and said the team never had to talk him into it, framing the move as something Litton volunteered for rather than something forced on him. He is also rated as one of Bangladesh’s better players of spin, a skill Simmons wanted active in the middle overs rather than parked at the top of the order.
Bangladesh had already tried several options in that specific position without success, and Simmons wanted someone durable rather than promising. Litton fit that description better than anyone else available inside the squad at the time.
Litton Das Salahuddin adapt number five
Mohammad Salahuddin has been just as vocal in public backing the switch, even if his exact phrasing differs from how the move gets described elsewhere. He has stressed that no single player sits above the team’s needs, a line that captures how Bangladesh’s coaching staff wanted this framed from the start. His explanation leaned heavily on Litton’s versatility and his calmness against both pace and spin.
He also pointed back to the 2019 World Cup innings as the clearest proof the theory holds, when Litton made an unbeaten 94 in exactly this role against the West Indies. Salahuddin previously mentored Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal early in their careers, and he has held the senior assistant coaching post since late 2024, giving his read on this repositioning genuine weight inside the camp.
The Case For and Against the Move
The numbers explain why this was ever a gamble in the first place. Litton scored all five of his ODI centuries while opening the batting, and he spent most of his career anchored somewhere in the top four before this year. He had also gone eight ODI innings without reaching double figures since December 2023, and had been out of the side for roughly nine months before this recall.
Set against that is the 94 not out from Taunton in 2019, still his only real body of work in this specific role before March. Across the three Pakistan matches he managed 41 in the second game, his side’s top score that day, followed by just five runs in the third. It is a small sample, but not an empty one.
None of it settles the argument either way, and that is precisely why this remains one of the more closely watched selection calls in Bangladesh cricket right now. Every innings at number five between now and the next series will be read as evidence for one side of the debate or the other.
Inside the Pakistan Series Results
Bangladesh actually won the series 2-1, and the results tell a messier story than any single batting-order debate. They crushed Pakistan by eight wickets in the first match, chasing 115 inside 16 overs after bowling the visitors out for 114. Pakistan hit back hard in the second, posting 274 and winning by 128 runs under DLS, before Bangladesh closed it out with an 11-run win in the decider.
Tanzid Hasan and Nahid Rana shared the player of the series award, but the bigger story from Dhaka was always going to be Litton Das Salahuddin adapt number five, and on the evidence of a series won 2-1, Bangladesh’s most stubborn problem position finally looks solved for now.