Hammered all through, India’s bowling woes dominated Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s assessment of the ODI debacle against Australia and the skipper on Saturday said the national team needs to have different attacks for all three formats of the game.
“As we move forward, we have to get aligned as to who are our best T20 and ODI bowlers, and who are our Test bowlers and we have to segregate accordingly. We can’t have similar bowlers in all formats,” Dhoni said.
“We have been struggling when it comes to the team composition. Even when we came here last time, we didn’t have a good line-up. We did well in the World Cup because the bowlers picked up and bowled well. Our batting has always been settled, but we have also make mistakes while struggling with our bowling.”
That he is still not sure about the abilities of Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat Mann was evident when asked why he did not start hitting earlier in Saturday’s cliffhanger during which India chased down a record 331 to clinch a consolation win.
“Considering what happened in Canberra, I didn’t want to play the big shot and take chances, because after me there were only Gurkeerat Mann, Ravindra Jadeja and Rishi Dhawan. So I thought if I am finding it difficult, why will they find it easy. The good thing was that Manish Pandey was set and the partnership kept building as neither of us got out.”
‘no settled bowling line-up’
Relieved he might be after a consolation win against the seemingly unstoppable Australians, but Dhoni rued fact that the ODI side lacks a settled bowling line-up.
“I think we have been competitive in the series. The goal was to win matches. The first four games, I thought were close, but we didn’t close it down well. That’s important in the ODI format. Every over matters, especially in a high- scoring game. Giving those 15-20 run overs, it becomes slightly easier for the opposition,” Dhoni said.
“The top order has been together for a long time now. Where we have been hurt a little bit is the lower-order batting, where Manish did really well today, and also the fact that we have not had a settled bowling attack,” said Dhoni.
Man of the Match Pandey took centerstage today with his 81-ball knock, which was laced with eight fours and a six and the top-order batsman was happy to bat at No.4 in place of injured Ajinkya Rahane.
“Batting No. 4 is one of the chances I got because Ajju was injured, and I wanted to capitalise, especially on these wickets, with 300 scored in every match. Always nice to have Indian people in stadium, it’s a big boost,” said Pandey.