At the end of the first day's play it is now clear that the home skipper gave his Indian counterpart Rahul Dravid a happy gift by inviting the vaunted batting line-up a chance use the surface first, which even the word placid would not do justice to.

True, the grounds curator gave the team management a wrong impression of it being a bouncy and pacy wicket; a fact that even provoked Bangladesh to play three seamers. Yes, followed by heavy overnight rain there was an overcast condition in the morning to inspire a captain to consider the bowling advantages.

But it still bemused everyone how a captain could only believe in those two factors and completely disregard the history of the venue and his own experience of judging the playing conditions. And not to forget that he was also supported by a man like Dav Whatmore.

There was no single player in the India team who could have known about the conditions better than Bashar, who has played a few games in the venue and has inside knowledge of how the pitch here behaved in the four-day games. It is only a matter of associative memory to judge that a pitch does not change its characteristics overnight -- a fact that Bashar overlooked completely.

Now the question has been raised whether the Bangladesh skipper miscalculated the condition with a pre-committed conception or he simply tried to hide himself and his top-order batting from a possible early hour disaster.

If the intention was to escape then hard times have fallen on Bashar who would then do well not to continue at this level any more. There is no use playing Test matches if you don't have the courage to at least survive some time in the crease in difficult circumstances when you all knew that how it would be difficult to bat second under such immense heat and humidity.

It was impossible to know Bashar's version of the decision as he didn't show the courage to defend it to the press.

Rather the equally culpable Whatmore appeared in the scene to regret the erroneous decision.

"Oh yes, we regret the decision. Obviously if we knew the wicket was going to behave like that then certainly we would not chose to field first. We knew what the conditions were so we wanted to take the advantage of bowling first in the first session. But that did not work out," explained the outgoing Bangladesh coach.

The portly Australian also tried to save his skipper by saying that it was a collective decision.

Bravo! But then why appoint a captain if he doesn't have his own say?

No doubt there is the need for a captain in the team who can lead the side from the front and definitely set an example as a leader but unfortunately it has not been the case for Bashar in the recent past.

There is no need to go too far back because he had let the side down by his poor and defensive captaincy in the first one-day international at the same venue and many believe that it could have been a different story in the series if he had shown some courage in that game.

Undoubtedly the 34-year-old has served the team to his fullest in shaping their future in recent times.

But there is no scope to be stagnant on past successes anymore.

So, the obvious question is that whether the cricket authority in the country goes ahead with a new vigour or shoulders the responsibility on someone who himself looks tired and out of shape to deliver anything for the side.