Bangladesh were soundly twice beaten by an innings in their two Tests against England and failed to qualify for Saturday's triangular one-day international NatWest Series final, also featuring Australia.

But amidst some heavy defeats Bangladesh pulled off one of the all-time great cricket upsets when they beat world champions Australia by five wickets in the June 18 tri-series match in Cardiff.

Meanwhile the likes of batsman Mohammad Ashraful, all-rounder Aftab Ahmed, opener Javed Omar and pace bowler Mashrafee-bin-Mortuza have all shone at various stages during the past two months.

Bashar on Wednesday said: "I am very pleased with the way we have played in the one-day series.

"We didn't start well against England at The Oval (a 10-wicket loss) but came back against Australia at Cardiff. In the last couple of games we could have done a little better but we are showing improvement.

"We are becoming more competitive. In the last three games we have put ourselves in a position where we had a platform to make a big score but did not carry it through. That shows our improvement.

"It has been a hard series for us but when we go back home I think we can do a lot better against Sri Lanka in September.

"The one area we are always lacking is consistency but it's good to see that Javed Omar and Mohammad Ashraful have been scoring runs consistently," Bashar added.

"Sometimes when we are in a good position we just lose our way. We also need to bowl more line and length.

"But it's been good to have Mortuza bowling again after an injury and hopefully in the next series he will do even better."

Ashraful's brilliant run-a-ball hundred set up the victory against Australia and he followed that up with 94 against England at Trent Bridge and 58 against the Australians in Manchester on Saturday.

It was proof that consistency was at last being added to the talent that saw Ashraful become the youngest player to score a Test hundred when, as a 16-year-old, he reached three figures against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001.

"The consistency of 'Ashy' (Ashraful) has pleased me," Bashar said. "He has been playing for a while, he started very young at 17. I know him very well. He has been batting like this since he started.

"But the thing he has been lacking in his cricket is consistency. He has brought that into his game in England which really pleases me and is a great thing for our team. I hope he continues it."

Looking to the future, Bashar added: "I think some of the players would benefit from a spell in county cricket. I think it would a great opportunity for us if we came and played county cricket.

"You would get different wickets and different conditions and sometimes it would be tough. If you can get through these things, then you can learn a lot which will help you as a player.

"If the boys can get a chance to play in England, they should take it because they could improve a lot. There is no shortage of talent in our team. They just need a little bit of exposure and a little bit of experience and to be playing a good level of cricket."