Mushfiqur Rahim is the safest pair of gloves if Bangladesh must manage without their first-choice keeper, even though he has not kept in a Test since 2019. Jaker Ali is the closest specialist alternative, with six caps to his name. The call may never be needed, because scans on 19 October found no major joint damage. Even so, there is no squad and no confirmation, and the opening game in Dhaka is only days away on the calendar, which keeps the pressure high.
Scans Bring Cautious Relief
The scans on 19 October removed the worst fear. They showed no serious trouble inside the hip joint, only a slight muscle problem, and the board described the news as nothing significantly bad. Litton has been doing light exercise and physiotherapy without pain, with doctors watching him closely every day and no sign of a setback so far. That is a better position than many injured players find themselves in this close to a series.
Optimism is not clearance, though. The board hopes to have him for the Tests against West Indies but has confirmed nothing, and a clearer picture is promised in about two days. Head coach Simmons sounded blunter, saying Litton has not fully recovered and is racing against time. With the squad still unnamed, every selection call hangs on one medical update, and that makes the waiting uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Litton Das hip injury West Indies Test series
The calendar leaves little room for slow healing. The first Test begins in Dhaka on 28 October, and the second follows in Sylhet on 5 November. Whoever gets the gloves must be settled before the squad is read out, which makes the next 48 hours more important than any net session or warm-up match could ever be. Sylhet offers a little more breathing room, but only if the first Test goes smoothly.
Nayeem Hasan sits a fitness test on 22 October, a separate question that gets answered in the same window. Selectors will want both results before they commit to a travelling group, since each one shapes the other. A negative outcome on either front would force a rethink of how many specialists the side can carry, and of where the extra batting cover has to come from.
The Backup Gloves Compared
Mushfiqur Rahim brings the heaviest numbers by a wide distance among all the candidates. He owns 105 Tests, 6,876 runs at 39.06, a best of 219 not out, and 115 catches with 15 stumpings, and he last played a Test on 22 August 2026. The catch is that his last Test behind the stumps came in 2019, so a recall would mean a return to a job he dropped years ago, and that is a real risk against quality bowling.
Jaker Ali is the nearest thing to a specialist replacement, although his record is slim: six Tests, 337 runs at 30.63, a top score of 91, nine catches and one stumping, last capped in June 2025. Nurul Hasan Sohan has ten Tests and 34 dismissals, while Mahidul Islam Ankon has one Test and a single dismissal. None of the four comes close to Litton’s 119 catches and 17 stumpings over 54 Tests, so the drop in glovework would be obvious from the first session.
Form Records With and Without Him
Recent results tell a mixed story. Bangladesh beat Pakistan 2-0 in May with Litton making 126 and 69, and they drew with Afghanistan in October as he added 53 and 102. The Mackay Test in August ended in defeat by an innings and 51 runs with Litton out for nought, so his presence guarantees nothing, but his bat has still shaped the better results of the year.
The only clear sample without him is the Zimbabwe Test from 28 June to 2 July, lost by an innings and 85 runs. His career return of 3,356 runs at 36.47, with six hundreds, 20 fifties and a best of 141, explains why every scrap of news is being guarded so tightly. The side will want him on the field if the muscle allows it. Until the Litton Das hip injury West Indies Test series picture clears, Bangladesh will plan around Mushfiqur’s experience and Jaker’s gloves.