Sydney: Faced with a do-or-die situation, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all set to field his three regular openers rather than experiment with a pinch hitter at the top of the order in Sunday’s crucial tri-series One-dayer against Australia here.
“We have three genuine, proper openers. I see no good reason why I should sent in a pinch-hitter. All three score at a brisk pace, they are good at hitting boundaries as well as in taking singles.
“There is no requirement of a pinch hitter when all three are playing,” said Dhoni, indicating the rotation policy is as good as over for the rest of the tournament.
With only two more league matches to go, a defeat for India would leave them just a solitary match against Sri Lanka and a must-win with a bonus point situation.
Citing an example of Mahela Jayawardene to show Sri Lanka’s resurgence in the tournament as they have now won their last three matches with the captain opening and contributing with the bat with scores of 61, 45 and 85, Dhoni said, “The game has changed slightly with two new balls, one from each end. If the top order can spend more time and we have wickets in hands later, we could look to accelerate.
“That should be the mantra as of now. It’s not been great going for us so far. Our strength is different from Sri Lanka and Australia. Sticking to your own strength is really important. It’s important to keep learning from each and every game, especially in the areas where we have to improve as a side. It’s important we don’t repeat the mistakes we have been making as a team. It would help us do well.”
Asked if playing an extra bowler, now that Irfan Pathan has come good, is the way forward, Dhoni said, “More than bowling, we have struggled in the batting. Our batting would look very thin with Irfan at seven and Ashwin at eight. It’s not an option at least in this game. In future, once we are doing well, and top five or six batters are really performing well, then it’s an option.”
The captain also dismissed the suggestion of playing an extra batsman in the eleven.
“You have to weigh positives and negatives. If opposition scores those extra 20-30 runs, then it becomes difficult to chase even with an extra batsman.
“Irfan has done well, his bowling has been genuinely good, with the new ball as well as in the middle (overs) as in the death (overs). It’s good to have a seaming allrounder but I wouldn’t put pressure on him. I would still call him a bowler — he can always come in and have a bat.”
India’s been plagued with injuries as Dhoni confirmed that Zaheer Khan has calf injury, while R Vinay Kumar is doubtful for Sunday’s game because of hamstring strain.
Dhoni said only if Vinay was unavailable, would he think about Praveen Kumar even though the latter isn’t quite actually on top of his game.
Though young leg-spinner Rahul Sharma, who was impressive with his bounce and accuracy in two Twenty20 internationals and the first ODI he played in Melbourne, can also be a bowling option, Dhoni didn’t seem inclined for such an option.
One abiding theme of this tri-series has been the rather indifferent form of India’s young middle order batsmen — Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina and, to an extent, Virat Kohli.
“I am not disappointed with them. Everytime any individual goes to field, he wants to perform. At times you can’t perform. It happens to everyone who has played international cricket.
The captain also took time to look back on the run-out appeal of the Indians against Sri Lankan Lahiru Thirimanne, who backed too far outside the non-striker’s crease before every ball was bowled.
“It’s important to appeal. If it is part of rule, it’s not wrong (to appeal). If somebody is cheating, you can use some other word here, if a batsman is getting out (of his crease), he’s cheating for he is not allowed to do so. It’s not fair because he can complete the run if a ball has gone to short third man or fine leg.
“Too many rules are getting changed. It’s fair to give batsman a chance and warn him — ‘please don’t do it’. Sometimes the proper warning could only be by getting him out because till then nobody really listens to you,” he said.
Dhoni though faulted the umpires for leaving the decision in the domain of the skipper as he thought they should have taken a call once such an appeal was made.
Looking at India’s prospect in the tri-series, Dhoni said it should be one game at a time. “We need to look at one at a time. It would just make calculation easy. We should look to win matches, how we win is not important…we are hoping it would go our way.” (PTI)