It's a big challenge for the 34-year-old immediate past Bangladesh captain to disprove his critics who have the belief that his one-day career is over. Bashar's decision to continue to play one-day cricket is courageous but one of the finest batsman in the country has to prove in the Test series first.

So everybody is looking forward to see how he responds in Sri Lanka under this circumstance, especially when the captaincy burden is gone after he lost the hot seat to star batsman Mohammad Ashraful.

"After playing for a long time in the national team, there is hardly anything to prove as a player. But it's altogether a different tour for me as this time I am not the captain of the team rather my main focus is to return among the runs to keep my place as a performer in the team," said Bashar yesterday.

Bangladesh will first be involved in a three-match Test series and the 34-year old right-hander has to shine with the bat to force the selectors to remain in the island for the one-day series.

"I am not concerned about my career and right at the moment my main objective is to score runs as much as I can. The one-day series is not in my mind because I am only focusing on the Test series. I know how difficult the condition is but I am very confident," said the Tigers' most successful Test batsman, with 2884 runs in 44 Tests that included three hundreds and 24 half centuries.

Bashar's Test average of 33.53 is a stark contrast to his one-day career where he holds an average of 21.68 in 111 games.

The successful skipper always loved to keep his voice low which, however, was not at all possible during his three-year stint as a team leader but now he has got the opportunity to maintain his serenity.

"Don't you think I am very jolly man? Maybe I was not always the centre of attraction but I was always in the there, somewhere! The fact is that my batting was a bit hampered by the captaincy role. But now I can enjoy my batting fully," he responded with a smile.

After returning home in 2005 from Sri Lanka where Bashar's men were swept aside in both one-day and Test, termed the tour as the worst one in his career as captain but he believes that this team is more confident.

"I must say that the boys are now more confident. It is not easy to perform well in Sri Lanka where even the big teams, except world champions Australia, struggle. Our last tour was a disaster but I don't think it would be same this time," said a confident Bashar, who had a few successes in an otherwise forgettable visit in 2005 as he smashed his highest score (84) against Sri Lanka in the first Test and made 41 not out in the second one-dayer.