Sheer hard work & patience paid off: Liton Das

CHATTOGRAM - Liton Das credited his hard work and patience for his maiden Test century that came after a poor run of form in the T20 format.

  He though was in good form in Test cricket, it was almost forgotten when he had a disastrous Twenty20 World Cup, which led his axe from the team.

  But at the same time, he was subjected to online troll and hatred, which is believed to inflict a sheer mental agony.

  Liton remained tightlipped on the online hatred issue but said he overcame the problem with extreme hard work and patience.

  "The technical things or others are not issue, the issue is here that I did a lot of hard work, which eventually paid off," Liton said after the second day's game of the first Test against Pakistan here today. "When you will get a century in Test format, which is the pinnacle of the cricket, you will obviously be happy. I am really elated to get to this at last."

  Liton could add just one run to his overnight 113 before being out in the second over of the second day. His dismissal led Bangladesh's collapse as they were bowled out for 330, resuming the day on 253-4. Liton said it would have been great had he could make the century a bigger one.

  "The century is always pleasing but still I think it should be big century. So if I can make it bigger, I would have been happier," he remarked.

  On the first day of the first when Liton achieved his century against Pakistan, batting coach Ashwell Prince said, "We worked on one or two little technical things. Not a great deal of things. It was more about changing his stance, and basically his alignment to get him lined up better. I think he showed good balance at the crease. He is such a joy to watch. He makes batting look so easy when he is batting well."

  Liton said he also found some problems in his batting and to fix the issue he sought the help of his former teachers Nazmul Abedin Fahim in BKSP.

  "After being dropped from the T20 squad, I played NCL matches in BKSP where I also went to some of my teachers including Nazmul Abedin Fahim who fixed one or two little things," he said.

   "When I joined practice in Chattogram, Prince also worked on my stanced and body alignment. But I think technical thing is not the issue. I was determined and did a lot of hard work to get back into my zone," he added.

  Liton further said he wants to stick to the process, no matter, whether he could score big or small. "I got a century but I have to start from 0 in the next match. You can't score century everyday. So what is important is to stick to the process. I also want to stick to that process."BSS