India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni extolled his bowlers for keeping the Australian batsmen under check as they outplayed the hosts to win the first T20 comfortably, here on Tuesday.
"Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra executed their plans really well. That's one period where we have struggled consistently, so it's good to see them bowl well. Of course the spinners took the bulk of the wickets in the middle overs. If you keep taking wickets in the middle overs, it becomes easier to win the game so their role was very crucial," said Dhoni.
Along with Bumrah India also handed debut to all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who had a mixed outing. Dhoni underlined the need to pack the side with all-rounders in the T20 format.
"Whenever there is a bit of help, Jadeja bowls well. You know that his spectrum of performance is usually quite narrow, which makes it slightly easy for us and gives us stability. That's why Hardik was also playing this game, because if he also gets going, it gives us the kind of stability we are looking for," said the skipper.
"All-rounders are important. Even if Hardik doesn't bowl four overs for me in every game, even if he bowls only two or three overs, I can still use others. What I don't want is the top five or six batsmen including the keeper where you don't have a bowling option.
"It's important to have players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina who can bowl and bat. If you have too many one-dimensional players, especially in your top order, then it becomes very difficult if somebody has a bad day," he added.
Kohli has been in great touch since landing in Australia, with two hundreds and two half-centuries in the five-match ODI series, and now an unbeaten 90 in this first T20I.
"I think in Adelaide they'll be naming a stand after him (Kohli), the amount of runs he's scoring. By the time he ends his career, quite a few Australian grounds will have his stand," said Dhoni.
In the end though, Dhoni was just happy to continue the team's winning run since Sydney, after losing four ODIs on the trot before that. Both these wins have been team efforts, and thus it will be imperative that the Men in Blue continue doing so, as they look to build to the WT20 at home.
"In a team sport, it's important that you do well as a team. Virat's contribution was very important. It would have been a little difficult if they had to bat earlier or more, they could have been under some pressure, because after one net session here, it's not easy to straightaway hit big shots.
"But the main thing we needed to see was how the bowlers bowled, and I think they did well. In short formats, you tend to go for runs but we should see how many dot balls have been bowled. And after that Jadeja and Ashwin bowled well which was important," Dhoni said at post-match press conference on Tuesday.