India captain M.S. Dhoni said on Saturday the injury to Shikhar Dhawan in the morning and the resultant communication gap impacted the side adversely.
He said, “We went to practice and the wicket wasn’t good for it. Shikhar (Dhawan) got hit and left. After that I padded up and went in… He (Shikhar) was a bit uncomfortable but he didn’t react as to he won’t bat. By the time I finished batting I found the wicket to be more uneven.”
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Dhoni revealed, “He (Dhawan) came back to the dressing room and coach Duncan (Fletcher) and I were there. By then it was quite close to the start of play. And there we saw Shikhar wasn’t really hundred per cent fit to go in to bat. It was quite late and we could give maybe only five to 10 minutes’ notice to Virat (Kohli) that he would go in to bat.
“That’s one area which we could have handled a bit better. That’s the kind of scenario when there is a bit of unrest in the dressing room. It’s not like a typhoon coming, it’s just that the calmness of the dressing room goes for a toss. It was a bit late to verbally resolve the problem,” he said.
He felt the fourth day’s first session was very crucial in the context of the Test. “I don’t think we handled it well. That was one of the main reasons (for defeat) because if we had a decent partnership going in the first 25 minutes and got a few more runs, we all knew the wicket was misbehaving to an extent, it could have been different.”
On India’s unsuccessful bouncer ploy against the Australian batsmen, he said, “I felt at that point with Mitchell (Johnson) coming, and he is someone who can bat, it was important to use a few bouncers and we have got a few wickets with bouncers. Also if you see, Mitchell played quite a few shots and there were a lot of catches that were 15 feet short of fielders or 15 feet away.”
Asked about verbal exchanges on the field, he replied, “I feel till they are not abusing each other, and till they don’t cross the line, it is fine. A lot of kids and elderly people also watch the game. You also want a little aggression in the game.”
DRS Queried on DRS, Dhoni replied, “There are a lot of 50-50 decisions that are not going in our favour. We are at the receiving end more often than not. And that’s what happens with DRS too. Because if the umpire has given out, it is still out because DRS is often used to justify the decision given by the umpire.”
Commenting on the umpiring standards in the series, he said, “It can certainly improve but it is also very tough for those two individuals. Not to forget it has been very hot. They stand there for five days.”
Analysing the Indian performance so far, Dhoni said, “The exciting part is that we have competed. The last time we were here, we were not really able to compete.”
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