With the completion of the India series that gets underway here today, the Whatmore era will come to an end and that's why it was an altogether different feeling for the burly coach.

"I think, yeah, because I can't stop thinking about it. Yeah, I worked with a group of boys for the last four years and this is the last month so there are fond memories which pour greatly over the bad ones. So there is little bit (emotion), yeah," was the response from a steely Whatmore, under whom Bangladesh won a number of matches including some big ones.

But as a professional all his focus will be only on the coming task and undoubtedly it would be a great farewell for him if his boys rise to the occasion in the three-match one-day and two-match Test series.

"Motivation has never been a problem for the Bangladesh team. Every game is very, very important for us whether it is a World Cup tournament or not. We have been progressing very well and managed to go one place up in the rankings and every game is an opportunity for the team to go higher in the ranking," said Whatmore when asked what would be his team's motivation in the series after the World Cup success.

Although there was a debate on the home pressure after the Tigers' World Cup success, the Bangladesh coach however took it as an advantage.

"Slightly, slightly (there is an advantage) because people will come to Mirpur tomorrow, I am sure, to support us and not India although the visitors have strong following here. I think there is a slight advantage," he observed.

Bangladesh will need a good start like their World Cup match if they want to repeat the feat but the problem is that this is the area which remains the most vulnerable but Whatmore looked quiet on this.

"In the World Cup we had only two combinations. Shahriar (Nafees) opened with Tamim (Iqbal) and when Shahriar was dropped, Javed Omar came in," he defended his position.

He said that they would wait till today morning to decide on pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza who has been complaining of back pain from Tuesday.

"And now we are not in a position to give you the twelve because of the situation. We are not able to decide the eleven and unfortunately we have to give you the eleven at the toss. Mashrafe is having a small problem but I am not sure. He will be given every chance to prove his fitness in the morning and this is the reason why we are not naming the playing eleven now," he said.

And although India are without their two big name players -- Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly -- the Bangladesh coach rated his opponents highly.

"The Indian team is different but that happens time to time. It's a representative eleven with lot of cricketers who aspire to play for their country. Whoever is in the team got some ability I am sure. They will be keen to do well also. I think it's a pretty good team," he said adding that the pitch is quite satisfactory.