In 38 Tests, the 33-year-old Bashar is approaching the 2,500-run mark, which includes three hundreds: 108 v Zimbabwe at Chittagoong in 2001/02; 108 v Pakistan at Karachi in 2003 and 113 v West Indies at Gros Islet in 2004.

His data seems a bit Bradmanesque in the current context of Bangladesh’s cricket and bottom-pit standing/rating, considering that the rest of the present crop of batsmen are struggling to get decent scores per innings.

Readers must know that in close to 40 Tests contested by Bangladesh, only seven players has made a century in an innings of a match.

They are Aminul Islam, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Javed Omar, Mohammad Ashraful, Nafees Iqbal and the “Bangla Bradman”, Habibul Bashar.

Habibul Bashar is the player everyone wants to identify with in Bangladesh, and the aura of domination he carries at the crease is what his country wants its cricket team to emulate.

Bashar got the captaincy of his country in 2003, when the national cricket authority felt that it was time to give the job to someone who could lead by example.

However, though his batting has continued to flourish, the team could not and has not managed to improve its status.

Captaincy has changed Bashar’s shy demeanour of old, and the days when he struggled to look an opponent in the eyes are now long gone.

It has also brought about a change in his overall outlook, which has made his rivals/opponents aware of the man -- Habibul Bashar.

“Looking at my Test career thus far, I feel the 20 fifties I scored should have been hundreds,” he said.

Also, he stated in a recent interview, he has started converting a few.

According to Bashar, his best moments for Bangladesh came in the West Indies in 2004, when he averaged nearly 60 in the two-Test series, with a glorious run-a-ball hundred in St. Lucia.

He dispatched the real hot chilly pepper Tino Best, a.k.a. “Mr. Erratic” himself, to all corners of the park.

Test cricket has been a story of personal triumphs for Bashar, but his world will be more complete with two things.

“I want to average 40 at least when I end my career, and I want to see a few more Test wins,” he opined.

It has been far from a joyride for Bangladesh in Test cricket, and in the five-plus years at the top level, they have not gone according to the lofty expectations of November 2000, when the “Tigers” played India in their inaugural Test in Dhaka.

Finally, it would be foolhardy to pick an all-time Bangladesh Test eleven.

Notwithstanding their mediocre performance, however, the following team I have selected just about sums up a fairly okay Bangladesh Test eleven, encompassing: 2000 - 2006.

1. JAVED OMAR
2. NAFEES IQBAL
3. HABIBUL BASHAR
4. AMINUL ISLAM
5. MOHAMMAD ASHRAFUL
6. KHALED MASHUD
7. MOHAMMAD RAFIQUE
8. MOHAMMAD BIN MOORTAZA
9. TAPASH BAISYA
10. ALOK KAPALI
11. EMANUL HAQ JUNIOR