The 21-year old left-handed opener made his first game against the Australians a memorable one with a well-paced hundred (138 off 189 balls), the third highest after Mohammad Ashraful (158) and former Bangladesh skipper Aminul Islam (145).

"I think playing against the world's best attack was an inspiration for me. It is a different feeling when someone meets teams like Australia and I was also not an exception. And finally when you come out with a hundred against them, it's simply a great, great feeling," told an excited Nafees, who crossed the magical three figures in only the fifth match of his short career.

"And when players like Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting congratulated me saying that it was a well-paced hundred, joy knew no bound for me," he added.

But the young batter was most excited with the fact that his innings played a role for his side to finish the day on a great note.

"The day's success proved that Bangladesh cricket is going upward which is most significant for me. I think the achievement was best of Bangladesh cricket. Scoring 350 runs in day against a team like Australia is not a joke," said Nafees, elated for obvious reason.

When he was asked about his batting position, Nafees said that his main concern is to score runs for his side.

"I enjoy batting for Bangladesh. My duty is to score runs for my team and not to think about batting positions. It's great that I made my hundred as an opener. I am looking forward to serve my team as best as possible," he said.

"I was not nervous at any stage even when I received a nasty bouncer off Brett Lee on my helmet.

But honestly speaking I was little bit tense when I reached 99," said the batsman who was dropped at a fly-slip position by Shane Warne when he was on 66.

Nafees was not successful against Muttiah Muralidaran whenever he tried to play the sweep but he showed different character against Shane Warne to be successful.

"Actually I was wrong in choosing the ball for sweep shot against Murali but I think I learnt from my mistake which reflected in the day against Warne. My main intention was to play according to merit of the delivery," he said.

The vital cog of his and the whole innings was the short period after lunch when Nafees and skipper Bashar consolidated to be set again during the post-lunch period. Before lunch, they were rampant, going at a rate of almost six an over. But just after lunch, Ricky Ponting's applied a different strategy to contain the batsmen, to test their temperament. But thankfully, the pair were steady and controlled to score only 28 runs from 13 overs.