{"id":10252,"date":"2015-01-22T13:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T13:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/01\/22\/have-faith-in-our-batsman\/"},"modified":"2015-01-22T13:57:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T13:57:50","slug":"have-faith-in-our-batsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2015\/01\/22\/have-faith-in-our-batsman\/","title":{"rendered":"“Have Faith In Our Batsman”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Indian Captain Wants More Partnerships<\/h3>\n

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India have had a rather inauspicious start to their tri-series, losing their first two games. While the four-wicket loss to Australia was a close game, the defeat against England at the Gabba was crushing.<\/p>\n


\nIndia\u2019s batting was dismal as they were dismissed for 153 in 39.3 overs after MS Dhoni elected to bat first. The captain put the batting failure down to lack of partnerships.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cGetting off to a good start is important, especially in these conditions. But that doesn\u2019t mean that the openers will always have to perform,\u201d Dhoni said after the nine-wicket loss. \u201cWhat\u2019s important is even if you lose early wickets, you need to have partnerships going while keeping enough wickets in hand during the end with a decent run-rate, and accelerate from there.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThat is the gameplan but we kept losing wickets at regular intervals. We are eating up deliveries to create partnerships but when the time comes to accelerate, we are losing another wicket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n


\nWhile admitting the team\u2019s overall batting failures, Dhoni also stressed on the importance of keeping the faith. He spoke of the toll the Test series must have taken on the batsmen and emphasized on keeping them fresh.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThis was the same batting lineup that won us the Champions Trophy in England,\u201d he noted. \u201cThey are the same batsmen who have put in a lot of effort during the Test series. Irrespective of whether you score runs or not, the effort remains the same. It is important to have confidence in these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nA crucial factor in India\u2019s batting woes is the famine of runs from Shikhar Dhawan\u2019s bat. The opener scored 2 and 1 in the two ODIs, thus extending his streak of low scores. Dhoni said going out and hitting himself back into form might help the left-hander.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhen you\u2019re not scoring runs you put in a lot more effort and it takes all the more out of you. At times when you have a string of low scores, it is better to just go out there and express yourself,\u201d the captain said.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThat\u2019s something that Adam Gilchrist used to do \u2013 when he was completely out of touch, he started to play his shots from the first ball. You play two good shots and all of a sudden you\u2019re in form. That\u2019s something that could work for Shikhar.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nVirat Kohli has batted at No. 4 in both matches instead of coming in at his regular No. 3 position. Dhoni said it is a ploy to add meat to the middle order.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe have to strengthen the middle and the lower middle order. If early wickets fall, Virat can go in at four with still a lot of time on his hand,\u201d he said. \u201cHe can create partnerships and hold one end up while we can all look to give him company on the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAnother surprising move from Dhoni was to entrust Stuart Binny with the new ball, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The skipper said it was one of the things they want to try before the World Cup.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe have to see what the best way is to use him,\u201d he said. \u201cStuart can certainly swing the ball and we wanted to see what he can do with the new ball because that opens up new options for us.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cNow we know what he can do with the new ball and by the time this tri-series ends we will be exactly sure when and how we want to use him. That clarity of thought will help us deciding the playing XI.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nWhen asked to describe why Axar Patel was chosen ahead of R Ashwin in this game, Dhoni said it was to give the youngster some match practice going into the World Cup.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe have to give everyone enough games. Ashwin has been part of the team for a long time now and has played many matches outside the subcontinent,\u201d Dhoni said. \u201cWith more matches under his belt, Axar will improve further. His batting will also get better as he plays more in these conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe team has been in Australia since two months now and there are another couple of months ahead of them including the World Cup. Dhoni said they have reached a stage where rejuvenation of mind and body is as important as working on their skills.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe have spent enough time here now to know the conditions. Now it\u2019s all about being fresh mentally and physically,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a four-day gap before the next match and we will look to use this time to gain that freshness because we have to be here for two more months.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThere haven\u2019t been any signs of the fatigue yet but it is wise to device a coping system before the symptoms are evident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indian Captain Wants More Partnerships India have had a rather inauspicious start to their tri-series, losing their first two games. While the four-wicket loss to Australia was a close game, the defeat against England at the Gabba was crushing. India\u2019s batting was dismal as they were dismissed for 153 in 39.3 overs after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}