Online Desk: Bangladesh opener Liton Das has been ruled out of the Asia Cup and Anamul Haque Bijoy will be replacing him in the Tigers’ squad for the tournament.

Liton could not travel to Sri Lanka last Sunday with the Bangladesh squad for the continental championship due to viral fever. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) waited on the wicketkeeper-batter for a couple of days to see if he would recover in time for the six-nation tournament, beginning today with the game between Pakistan and Nepal in Multan.

“He (Anamul) has been in the runs in domestic cricket and we have continued to monitor him in the Bangladesh Tigers programme. He was always in our consideration. Due to Litton’s unavailability, we needed a top-order batter who could keep wicket and Anamul got the nod,” the BCB chief selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu was quoted as saying in a BCB-issued press release on the matter today.

Bijoy, who has played 44 ODIs and scored 1254 runs which include three hundreds, made his last ODI appearance for Bangladesh in December last year against India. He is due to arrive in Sri Lanka to join the Bangladesh team later today.