Duncan Fletcher defends bowlers, blames inexperience for poor show

Melbourne Indian bowlers might have come under severe criticism for their belowpar show in the recent Test series in Australia but head coach Duncan Fletcher has defended them saying that the thrashing they got from the home side batsmen was due to inexperience of some of themAsked about his assessment of Indias bowling in the 02 series loss to Australia in four Tests Fletcher admitted that the bowlers required improvement but said some of the criticism directed against them were unwarrantedRavi Shastri and Duncan FletcherI agree that there is a lot of work to do with the bowlers and they must realise their responsibilities at the Test level But I also think the Indian pacers get a lot of unwarranted flak Fletcher who has often been criticised for Indias poor run in overseas Tests in recent years saidFor these bowlers its just a matter of gaining experience of bowling in these conditions It was something that Ishant Sharma showed right through the series Fletcher was quoted as saying by bccitvThe 66yearold whose contract as India coach ends after the cricket World Cup to be jointly held by Australia and New Zealand from February 14 also sought to defend performance of Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav saying that the pace duo did better than some of their Australian counterpartsYou look at the highest wickettakers in the Test series Shami 15 wickets at 3580 has taken more wickets than Mitchell Johnson 13 wickets at 3553 at a similar average And this was Shamis first tour hereUmesh 11 has only one less wicket than Josh Hazlewood 12 And this is after being in and out of the Test and ODI teams on a regular basis which is not good for the confidence and rhythm of any bowler said the ZimbabweanHe was pleased with the performance of the Indian batsmen but said they need to work on their shot selection Its good to see almost all the batsmen among runs especially that outstanding performance by Virat He has also done well in Australia in ODIs and I hope that continues He is such a positive individual and has a positive influence on the side The other batsmen at times have shown good formThe one area they need to work on is their risk assessment In the Test matches at times I felt like they got themselves out Now they need to understand what shots are on in certain situations That will be one important aspect for us to work on in the triseries said Fletcher who took charge of the Indian team in April 2011Talking about the upcoming World Cup Fletcher said that the Indian players know how to win big tournaments and they can defend the title they won in 2011 as they have been doing well in all conditions in the limited over formats of lateThis will be my third World Cup as a coach and I am very excited especially given the side we have I think we have a good chance to win after the way the team has been building over the last threefour years he saidA big reason for my belief is our Champions Trophy 2013 victory in England We played in very foreign conditions that did not suit the side and yet we played so well that we did not lose a single match That shows that the side is used to winning and thats really exciting he added He said India have played three ICC tournaments in the last three years the ICC World T20 201213 and 2014 and the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 and they have only lost twogames in all of which one was the finalThat is quite a record to be proud of And the team in all those tournaments was more or less the same So these boys do have the experience when it comes to the big tournaments and they do know how to win them Fletcher saidWhat makes this team special is that over the last few years they have faced all kinds of situations in the limited overs cricket and have shown they are capable of coming out successfully from all of them Thats why I say that we have a good chance to win this World Cup he saidFletcher also felt that the team will have the advantage in the World Cup having acclimatised to similar playing conditions in AustraliaIt is going to be a huge advantage Also playing the triseries just before the World Cup is a great idea for us in getting used to how the white ball behaves here This series will be a good chance to have a look at them for the advance stages of the World Cup he saidSince most of these boys have played in the Test series they know the conditions well and how each player approaches his game in these conditions When too many new players come in it takes time for everyone to get used to their little idiosyncrasies and how they cope in certain situations You are doing away with the learning curve and that gives you a chance to hit the ground runningAsk about using the triseries as a preparation ground for World Cup Fletcher advocated caution in this approach while also revealing that the team will experiment a bitThats one area where we will have to be careful in maintaining balance between trying to win the triseries while also using it to try out some things we might do in World Cup because by the time we get there we want to be settledWe have to be careful in doing that trying to sort some stuff out be it a technical issue or a selection issue or getting the players to be comfortable with their respective roles going into the World Cup he said He said pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohit Sharma who are not part of World Cup squad will be fielded in some triseries matches to give rest to other main bowlersThe two bowlers in triseries who are not part of World Cup Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohit Sharma will be used to give those who played Tests a bit of rest This is where weve got to be smart We still want those main bowlers to learn and be ready to bowl in oneday conditions with white ball At the same time we dont want to overbowl before the World CupFletcher expressed confidence that the bowlers will come up with a good show in the World Cup despite their belowpar display in the Test series against Australia As for World Cup we have to remember that when we won Champions Trophy the bowlers defended a very very low totals and they must be given credit for thatI feel that they are much more confident when they bowl in the oneday game because they have played more amount of limited overs cricket with the ODIs IPL and T20Is They have much more experience in the shorter formats as compared to Test cricket he said He also lauded captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has just retired from Test cricket for his calm leadershipOneday cricket is all about handling extreme pressure when side is down Our excellent record when chasing totals shows that The team has been led by MS Dhonis attitude His calmness does rub off on the team as a whole Most other sides cant do it because under such pressure you lose your cool the decisionmaking becomes cluttered and you lose your way Because MS is so adept at soaking pressure we have done well in those situations It is important to be calm and take the game all the way and win with maybe three balls to spareFletcher said lack of options regarding the quality allrounder in middleorder was one area that makes him a bit nervous What we need in these conditions is a good batting allrounder who bowls seam That will add depth in our batting and give us that extra bowler That is the real reason why we have Stuart Binny in the squad Well have to have a close look at him here because batting deep is going to be very very important in this World Cup he said