The think-tank, however, was in a selection dilemma after the first look at the Asgiriya pitch during yesterday's practice session and looked to revise their pre-meditated strategy going into the final match of the series with only three specialist bowlers.

An expected seaming condition with a lot of grass on the surface has forced the management to consider bringing in left-arm paceman Syed Rasel in place of Mohammad Sharif as the third seamer.

After the second Test, it was all but decided that the Tigers would field three specialist bowlers in Kandy but the latest development has made the selectors' job harder as they have to drop a batsman to make way for Tushar.

Mehrab Hossain have had a poor maiden Test but ignoring him would seem harsh after giving the youngster just one game. A few believe that the time has come to axe opener Shahriar Nafees after his series of poor showing.

For Tushar, failure could mean returning to the wilderness again as it is hard for any cricketer to play his natural game after joining the team in the middle of the series.

Tushar is one of the most unfortunate players in the country as he has hardly got fair judgment during his career. Tushar made his Test debut in 2002 against Sri Lanka and last played against the same team in 2005, and in between, he played two Tests in South Africa. The number of four games, however, was good enough for the Faruque Ahmed-led selection panel to say that they have given Tushar enough chance.

Understandably, the question has been raised whether this one-match performance would be a criteria for the selectors to make a conclusion on his future.

Selector Akram Khan, who is touring with the team, however, assured a fair treatment.

"Just forget what happened in the past. We hope he will give his best if he ultimately plays the match and I can assure you that his performance here will not be decisive for future selection. He will get the fair treatment,” said the former Bangladesh captain.

Akram have had the experience of joining the team in the middle of the tournament during the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and he is very much aware of how difficult it is for a batsman.

"No doubt it's a big pressure for a batsman but you should cope with this at this level. But Tushar has an advantage as he is considered for the one-day squad,” he explained.

Akram meanwhile, was not ready to explain their U-turn about the inform batsman, whose exclusion from the Test squad had raised a lot of eyebrows.

Chief selector Faruque then defended that Tushar was given enough chance but failed to prove his worth but suddenly, the selectors found that Tushar is an inform batsman who can rescue the team from batting debacles.

"Actually we considered him after our unexpected failure of the top order batting. We thought that Tushar would be a good choice to strengthen the batting," Akram told.

The selectors were also in confusion over the one-day fate of Habibul Bashar as they have actually no policy about the one-day team.

It has been all but confirmed who will return home on conclusion of the Test series except one place. Bashar lost his captaincy mainly because of his poor form in limited-overs cricket and continued his bad patch in the Test series to jeopardise his chances to stay.

However, it was learnt that Faruque wants to see his last Test performance before deciding his one-day fate.