Relieved he might be after a consolation win against the seemingly unstoppable Australians, but Indian captain MS Dhoni on Saturday rued the fact that the ODI side lacks a settled bowling line-up
Umesh Yadav
Sydeny: Relieved he might be after a consolation win against the seemingly unstoppable Australians, but Indian captain MS Dhoni on Saturday rued the fact that the ODI side lacks a settled bowling line-up.
Not good enough: India pacer Umesh Yadav bowls during the fourth ODI vs Australia in Canberra on Wednesday. He finished the ODI series with a poor ecomony rate of 7.21. Pic/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT
India won the fifth ODI by six wickets courtesy an unbeaten 104 from youngster Manish Pandey but the bowlers bled runs in the series, which the visitors lost 1-4. Dhoni though still found positives from the showing.
"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.
Dhoni said India 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."