It's a grooming period, says Dhoni

August 23, 2011 01:57 am | Updated August 10, 2016 04:15 pm IST - LONDON:

England had just commenced its celebrations — champagne, fireworks, victorious trumpets, the lot — when M.S. Dhoni walked into the media-conference room, a smile on his lips.

Dhoni's great strength has been his ability to treat cricket as a game, not getting overly affected by victory and defeat. His demeanour in defeat, a clean-sweep at that, was commendable, but how much more commendable it would have been had India fired!

In the wake of the 0-4 loss, the Indian captain spoke of the need to groom the next generation for Test cricket. He wasn't advocating wholesale change, merely saying it was vital, given the rash of injuries and the ageing of India's key cricketers, to look ahead.

“It's a grooming period,” said Dhoni. “Our senior players have been part of the side for more than 15 years. You aren't entitled to have those players all the time. We need to give the youngsters exposure and experience. We need to give them confidence by not shuffling them too much. They need to get a taste of international cricket.”

He underlined the difficulty of the process because of the level of expectations.

“The expectations are very high. It doesn't allow, I wouldn't say it's experimentation, but it doesn't allow that kind of procedure to develop youngsters. We are always expected to win and there's pressure to play the established players. Also everyone wants to play more and more games. You can't say this series is important, that series isn't.”

He maintained that India had no shortage of talent; they just needed confidence. (Rahul Dravid was of similar opinion, saying India had talented ball-strikers, but that Test cricket was a hard learning ground; mental skills were just as important as physical talent).

Dhoni denied that the IPL had played a part in India's failure this series.

Asked about the injuries India had suffered, and whether India had risked too much by fielding half-fit cricketers, Dhoni said it was a difficult question to answer. It was up to the individuals, he said, and with cricketers like Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag, “you tend to wait for them to be available because you know the difference they make.”

He added, however, that Zaheer's was a “hamstring failure”, not an injury he had carried, and that Sehwag had played the two Tests he had travelled for.

Would a more empowered coach, who could make such decisions as is the case with England's system after its restructuring, help?

“Let's hope for the best,” said Dhoni with what can only be described as an enigmatic smile. “We'll see who gets empowered and who gets the power.”

Strauss hails team

Andrew Strauss, the England captain, hailed his team's 4-0 win over India, saying he had asked a lot of his players and they hadn't let him down.

“Enforcing the follow-on asked a lot of the bowlers and they responded very well,” said Strauss. “It was (Graeme) Swann's turn to take wickets today, but he was well supported by the seamers. And the 200 that Ian Bell scored was certainly the best innings I've seen him play and (it) set up this win for us.”

No letting up

Andy Flower, England's team director, said his team had worked incredibly hard to achieve its current standards; there would be no letting up despite the success.

“The players have worked extraordinarily hard to get their skills and their conditioning up, and they walk over that boundary rope and make good decisions under pressure,” said Flower.

“Also really good leadership from Strauss, you see that in all facets, and by Graham Gooch and some of our support staff, you can see that in some big first-innings scores and the fielding standards.”

Ian Bell was declared the ‘Man-of-the-Match'. Stuart Broad and Rahul Dravid were England and India's ‘Man-of-the-Series' respectively, as chosen by the opposition coaches.

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