Bowling is area of concern: Dhoni
DHAKA: Battered and bruised in the first quarter of 2014, India will aim to take fresh guard when they open their World Twenty20 campaign against traditional foes Pakistan here on Friday in what promises to be a cracker of a contest.
While form favours Pakistan, even though they were battered by South Africa in a warm-up game on Wednesday evening, history will be on India’s side as they have never lost to their arch-rivals on all three meetings in previous editions of the World T20.
Underlining his bowling concerns, India skipper MS Dhoni said on Thursday that they need to bowl well at the death and hoped that batsmen would give the bowlers more than the par score on board.
“Bowling is an area of concern compared to batting. Getting off to a good start is important as it will help us get 10 to 15 runs more than the par-score. Our aim will be to do well in death bowling and also bat well and we will have a good chance (in the tournament),” Dhoni said.
He said the likes Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar have not played a lot of T20 Internationals but the IPL experience will certainly come in handy for them.
“Agreed they haven’t played a lot of T20 International cricket but the experience in IPL will help them a lot. We would want the bowlers to get one or two wickets with the new ball, their job will be much easier,” Dhoni said.
While he was happy about Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina’s performance, he was non-committal on sending Ajinkya Rahane up the order.
“Overall, we have achieved a lot during the two practice games. The idea was to give the guys some fair time in the middle. Yuvi and Raina contributed in bowling.”
About Rahane opening, he said, “That’s under consideration. You will have to wait and watch.”
For Dhoni, “playing in right spirit” is far more important than crossing the line while opposite number Mohammed Hafeez maintains that there’s more to the World T20 than one particular match.
“Well, India versus Pakistan game will always be intense but I believe it has mellowed down over the years. Nowadays, you won’t find altercations like it used to happen when the players of the last generation played,” Dhoni replied asked about the waning popularity of clash between the arch-rivals.
“We used to get tensed watching those matches on TV when we were young. There used to be plenty of action happening apart from cricket. It’s good it’s not happening nowadays. You don’t want to cross the line. If we want to promote the game in a right way, then we should play in right spirit,” he said.
Hafeez was asked what he felt about the Pakistan fans who want his team to beat India regardless of winning or not the coveted World T20 trophy.
“It’s great to know the expectations of the fans but we would like to win the World T20 trophy. For that we need to start well and win tomorrow’s match. Boys will do well if they take one match at a time. But we are certainly looking forward to this game,” said Hafeez. (PTI)