Underlining his bowling concerns, India skipper yesterday said they need to bowl well at the death and hoped that batsmen would give bowlers more than the par score on board
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Mirpur: Underlining his bowling concerns, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni yesterday said they need to bowl well at the death and hoped that batsmen would give the bowlers more than the par score on board. India will begin their World T20 campaign against Pakistan today.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
"Bowling is an area of concern compared to batting. Getting off to a good start is important as it will help us get 10 to 15 runs more than the par-score. Our aim will be to do well in death bowling and also bat well and we will have a good chance (in the tournament)," Dhoni said.
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He said the likes of Mohd Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have not played a lot of T20 Internationals, but the IPL experience will certainly come in handy for them.
"Agreed they haven't played a lot of T20 International cricket but the experience in IPL will help them a lot. We would want the bowlers to get one or two wickets with the new ball, their job will be much easier,"
Dhoni said.
While he was happy about Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina s performance, he was non-committal on sending Ajinkya Rahane up the order.
Rahane to open?
"Overall, we have achieved a lot during the two practice games. The idea was to give the guys some fair time in the middle. Yuvi and Raina contributed in bowling." About Rahane opening, he said, "That's under consideration. You will have to wait and watch."
Dhoni conceded that it is difficult to score freely against mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal. "Ajmal is a bowler against whom you can never score freely. It's also the manner how they have used him (Ajmal) to stop batsmen from scoring runs in the slog overs. If you see on an average, all countries have had difficulties in facing Ajmal," Dhoni explained.
On the India-Pakistan rivalry, Dhoni said: "Well, India versus Pakistan game will always be intense but I believe it has mellowed down over the years. Nowadays, you won't find altercations like it used to happen.
Those tense TV matches
"We used to get tense watching those matches on TV when we were young. There used to be plenty of action happening apart from cricket. It's good it's not happening nowadays. You don't want to cross the line. If we want to promote the game in a right way, then we should play in right spirit," he said.
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