The A side returned home yesterday and Rasel was in a particularly upbeat mood.

During the tour the paceman had heard about his inclusion in the preliminary national squad and later learnt that he had been selected in the 15-member one-day team for the three-match one-day series.

"Definitely I was excited because this was my maiden call up to the national squad but I was not surprised. I had the confidence because of my recent consistent performance," said the 21-year old from Jessore who took 21 wickets from five first class games including 10 in the last match against Kent.

The youngman however was very realistic about his future.

"I think this is an opportunity for me. Sometimes it is easy to enter the national fold but the main challenge is to create a permanent place. Like any Bangladeshi young player I also dream of playing Test cricket," said Rasel.

Rasel said the English conditions suited the seam bowlers and the trip helped him add more variation in his bowling.

"England was fantastic because there was a lot of swing. I always put emphasis on variation rather than pace and my main target is to test the patience of batsmen. Wasim Akram is my hero and I also like the bowling of Chaminda Vaas."

National selector Golam Nawsher Prince, who had accompanied the team as manager, showered praise on Rasel and the firebrand Shahadat Hossain Rajib.

"Without seeing, you will not realise how beautifully he (Rasel) bowled in England. He is a tremendous talent and it was fantastic to watch his natural in-swingers. He bowls in the right areas which is not often the case with our seamers," said Prince, a former left-arm national pacer himself.

Prince was also delighted with Shahadat.

"He bowled real quick and maintained superb line and length. Everybody knows how important the tour was for him after a devastating Test debut at Lord's and I must say he bounced back to prove his worth."

Prince understandably was excited by Tushar Imran's splendid show after the 23-year-old hit two first class hundreds and two half centuries.

"It is really nice that Tushar threw a challenge to the selectors to get back his Test place. His consistent batting set an example for the others."

Prince was also touched by Alok Kapali's effort although the batsman could not perform.

"He had some good starts but failed to capitalise on them. But I must say he tried very, very hard but sometimes luck deserts you no matter how hard you work."

Captain Shahriar Nafees Ahmed had a good trip with the bat. He was however not too perturbed with the fact that the A side could not win any of the three-dayers.

"Looking at our results, you might say it was a bad tour but from a cricket education point, this tour had immense value. We learned a lot and should be better players because of the experience. We also realised that we need to work a lot on our second innings batting."