Will this talented yet highly erratic right-hander ever learn from his mistakes? If you are optimistic then you are putting your money for a lost cause since the past record hardly speaks in his favour.

He went for an ambitious hook shot against Dilhara Fernando when it was absolutely unnecessary in the first ODI that Bangladesh surrendered meekly after a bright start. It was however not for the first time in the tour he gifted his wicket.

Take for instance Ashraful's first innings of the tour. The 23-year-old Bangladesh captain threw away his wicket in almost identical fashion against the same bowler a mistimed pull shot and an easy catch at backward square leg.

"I will not make the same mistake," Ashraful promised after his first blunder of the tour and many felt that the burden of captaincy would make him more responsible in shot selection.

But he hardly kept his word save his unbeaten 129 in the second innings of the second Test at the same venue.

However, his comical display on Friday has bordered beyond any logic at a stage when Bangladesh sniffed an opportunity to pull off a victory against the world's second-ranked side.

It was acceptable when Tushar Imran, playing his first match after a long time, was out leg before or out-of-form Shakib Al-Hasan was caught behind for a duck. But it was inexplicable how a captain, with the experience of more than 100 ODIs under his belt played such a rash shot when the occasion demanded him to re-build the innings with opener Shahriar Nafees against an attack that lacked the necessary bite in the absence of two front line bowlers Muttiah Muralidaran and Chaminda Vaas.

A team like Bangladesh seldom gets the chance to restrict an imposing Sri Lankan batting to 234 and then score 45 runs for no loss inside 11 overs. But Ashraful's one stroke of madness coupled with the injudicious shuffle of the batting order eventually spoiled the brilliant effort of the bowlers.

The captain in question accepted it.

"Believe me I went into the middle with a mind set of avoiding the pull shots, but I made the same mistake," said Ashraful while reflecting on his latest gaffe.

"I am ready to accept all the blame. All the other batsmen have reasons for their dismissals but there was no excuse in my case. I can't still believe that we lost the match. What a great opportunity we spoiled," lamented Ashraful.

While Ashraful talked a lot after the failure, it was however all quiet at the team management front. Bangladesh is carrying large tour management party that included former national captain Akram Khan as selector and an Australian tagged as 'interim coach' who is as fascinated with the word 'positive' as his captain is with the term 'learning from mistakes'.

"No doubt it was disappointing the way we lost the match because we were in a position to win it. But I don't want to criticise any individual player because the whole squad is disappointed by the outcome," responded coach Shaun Williams.

"I think still there were lot of positive things for us as we dominated the match till 60 overs and our bowling was tremendous," said Shaun Williams.