If you consider the batting line-up of India in T20 cricket, there are plenty of heavyweights in their rank.
The men in blue have Rohit Sharma at the top and Virat Kohli at No 3; these two happen to be the highest run-scorers in T20Is.
Then comes Suryakumar Yadav, who possesses the highest strike rate (177.26) in the world, followed by KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik, making up a formidable batting order.
Bangladesh bowlers had to bowl extremely well to tackle these heavyweights and restrict India, and they did just that.
They managed to hold back the likes of Rohit, Pandya and Karthik.
But Rahul (50 off 32), Kohli (64 not out off 44) and Suryakumar (30 off 16) showed their musclepower eventually and scored quick runs for their team.
But after the first innings, one man stole all the spotlight. One batsman from the Red and Green showed his class and played a majestic innings, which eclipsed all the brilliant batting efforts by their Indian counterparts.
And the batsman with this magic touch was Liton Das.
The Bangladesh batsman's innings was a treat to watch as he played some spectacular shots all around the park with proper timing, calculated aggression and power hitting.
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Liton's stunning innings ended with a brilliant direct throw by Rahul from the deep but that was a sad and frustrating end to a memorable innings.
Bangladesh needed 83 runs off 52 balls with nine wickets in hand when Liton got out but unfortunately lost the plot from there, and eventually the match, by a mere five runs.
Liton, who smashed 60 off just 27 deliveries with seven boundaries and three sixes, was in his own zone in front of heavyweight T20 run-scorers like Rohit and Kohli. It was something special.
His innings could have been adjudged as one of the best in history for Bangladesh if they had emerged as the winners.
Such a classy innings is more suited for the winning side rather than a losing cause. And it's unfortunate for Liton that despite his brilliant knock, Bangladesh still lost.
This is not the first time Liton is experiencing such a high point in his career.
Against the same opposition, India, Liton played a similar kind of magical innings (121 off 117 balls) at the Asia Cup final in Dubai in 2018. But Bangladesh lost that match, also in the last ball, which was a heartbreak for millions of fans.
Liton's transformation in T20I cricket over the past year has been phenomenal.
But just a year ago he had experienced the other side of the coin. Bangladesh team were playing the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai and Liton was having a horrible time with the bat.
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In the year 2021, Liton's stats in T20Is was very poor as he scored just 208 runs from 16 innings with an average of 13 and strike rate of 95.41. His confidence was at an all time low during the end of the T20 World Cup last year.
Some media had reported that he will be dropped permanently from the T20I side.
He was given rest after 2021 in the immediate T20I home series against Pakistan.
But later he was given another chance and he grabbed it with both hands. Since then, he has transformed himself as a batsman and scored heavily in every format for Bangladesh at the top of the order.
His T20I stats after Wednesday's match will show how he has transformed his bad form into a golden run.
Liton has garnered 534 runs from 18 innings in the year 2022 with an average of 29.66 and strike rate of 140.52.
Unluckily for Liton, his innings was not enough to clinch a famous win.
But like former captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza said in his facebook post, one thing is for sure, Liton was the best batsman among all the heavyweights on show Wednesday night.
If the Tigers had managed to pull off the victory, Liton's innings would have been more glorified, and considered one among very few memorable ones in the cricket history of Bangladesh, just like Mohammad Ashraful's historic century in a winning cause against mighty Australia in Cardiff back in 2003.
