The boy since grown into a man is none other than the current Bangladesh captain, Mohammad Ashraful, who is all set to start a new journey at the same venue today.

So there was a reason to think that the 22-year old Tigers new skipper is obviously thrilled with the fact that he is going to the middle to toss with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahela Jayawardene, which is a dream for any cricketer.

But the man himself was not too excited as many might have thought. "It is as usual. This is nothing special to me," was the smiling response of the country's most talented batsman on the eve of the first Test of the three-match series.

But he then took few seconds to add that "yes it is nice feeling that I am going to make my debut as a captain at a ground from where I started my journey with a hundred".

He even didn't feel any pressure as a captain after spending six years at the highest level of the game. "No pressure at all because I want to enjoy the new job and I know I have to bat well first which is key to become a good captain," he observed.

But the new Bangladesh captain was aware of the fact that he is going to face a tough challenge in his first assignment as a captain because the record shows how badly his side's lost the all seven matches against the Sri Lankans.

"It is always tough to perform well against Sri Lankan in their home soil, so definitely it is a big challenge not only for me but also as a team. I will be the happiest man in the world if we could play all five days but it's not an easy task," said Ashraful.

But as a captain what he believes is that the present squad is much more confident than the previous one which played in the island last in 2005.

"I think everybody is confident although we all know we are going to face a world class batting and bowling line-up. They have tremendous variation in their bowling with spinner like Muralidaran and pacer Malinga but if we can play according to our plan than it would not be impossible to show our improvement against them," said the confident new Tigers skipper.

In an otherwise gloomy picture Ashraful himself has a very good record against the Sri Lankas with two hundreds under his belt.

"It is really encouraging for me that I had a hundred and 75-run innings at the same venue (SSC) and my overall record against them is also not too bad. I think it was mainly because I always watched Muralidaran on the screen whenever he played. I always think about his wrong one. Bashar bhai (Habibul Bashar) also has a very good record against them," he said.

"We have discussed about Murali because he destroyed us on most of the occasions. Just think about it -- he took 50 wickets in six matches but still I believe that there is no scope to be extra cautious against him for survival," he added.

Ashraful firmly believes that they have taken a different kind of preparation this time, which will play a part in this series.

"It was an altogether diverse batting session under Shaun's (Williams) guidance. What was encouraging is that the batsmen looked almost perfect in shot selection in the nets and now we have to carry it onto the main field," he said.

Yes, there has been much talk about batting practice under the new team management but now the time has come to show the results.