After a one-day series where his bowlers gave him little chance of being certain of anything, M.S. Dhoni was pleased with a victory that he could see coming from a distance. Despite Australia's early assault, he said he did not feel the urge to bring his spinners on, knowing they would be hard to attack with the field back.
“I was pretty sure about what I wanted to do,” Dhoni said after India’s win in the second T20I here on Friday.
“I was like, ‘I’m not giving spinners any overs in the first six.’ I knew they would hit a few boundaries off the fast bowlers, but I thought the spinners would have a very good chance, even if the run-rate was 10-an-over for the first six overs. The kind of talent they (our spinners) have, they can exploit the bigger outfield, especially on one side, and that’s what really happened.”
He added: “If you execute well, the captain will look good, the players will look good. But if you don’t, all of a sudden it looks like no one has any plan about what needs to be done.”
Dhoni said he was pleased with Yuvraj’s effort with the ball. “Well, the strength of the pie-chucker is his bowling, you know! You need more individuals who can do more than one job on the field. It just adds to the strength of the side,” he said.
Was it possible this would be India’s side now for the World T20, Dhoni was asked. “It’s slightly different now, because we are playing in Australia. There will be a few changes that will be made for the 15. You have to see from the utility point of view who you want to keep in the side.”
Australia made six changes, with three players making their T20 debuts. These games, it seems, are an opportunity for the selectors to experiment ahead of the World T20. “India has been a settled team for a long time. Six changes [in the Australian team] provides more challenges. The selectors are trying to find what their best-15 and the best team for the World Cup is,” Shane Watson said.
The lack of continuity in Australian T20 sides was a long-standing issue, he admitted. “No doubt, that’s the biggest challenge with the Australian T20 team — it always has been. There’s so much international cricket, so you’ve got to manage your players, which always means that there's no continuity with the T20 teams up until a game or two before the T20 World Cup.”
Watson agreed India’s fielding had seen a marked improvement from a decade ago. “There’s no doubt they've got some great athletes,” he said. “Jadeja is an incredible athlete, he’s got great hands, is very quick to the ball and has a great arm. Virat Kohli is fielding incredibly well as well.”
“It’s certainly changed a bit from the days when they had Virender Sehwag, my old mate Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman running around there!” he quipped.
