MS Dhoni Harps on Grooming Youngsters

By: BCCI

It was yet another spirited performance from the batting Team India’s batting unit which saw Virat Kohli leading from the front with a fine century and Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane getting to their respective half centuries. India managed to get 295 runs on the board, but yet again failed to defend the target as Australia won by three wickets to take a 3-0 lead in the five match ODI series. Despite the loss, India captain MS Dhoni defended his bowlers and reasoned the fielding lapses as one of the reasons for the loss in the 3rd ODI. “There was definitely pressure on our bowlers. Today, I felt the bowling was good in patches. We did let ourselves down with our fielding. The best fielders in our group actually left quite a few deliveries. I felt in this game, it was the fielding that let us down,” Dhoni said after the match.

Further defending his ‘inexperienced’ bowling attack, Dhoni said it was also necessary to groom the youngsters in the team. “Compared to the other series, the whole bowling line-up in this series is relatively inexperienced. Ishant is someone who has played a lot of international cricket, but in the ODIs, he hasn’t consistently been part of the format. Umesh has been on and off (in and out) and there are others who have made their debuts here. What we have to assess right now is how good the individuals are and how they are doing. You have to groom the youngsters because we won’t find complete products. We have to make them play and at the end, you will find good players who will serve the team for a long time.”

When asked if it was a bit unfair on the youngsters to straight away start performing on the big stage, irrespective of the situation of the game, Dhoni said, “If you are getting a chance to play for your country, irrespective of what the situation is, it can’t be unfair. That’s what you have to communicate with them. A lot of times, because of the media scrutiny, people who tend to bat at no. 5 or 6, the thinking becomes ‘I’ve gone in now after the 43rd/44th over, let’s look to play as if I’m hitting’, don’t get out and go back saying you are not out and everyone is happy. That’s the kind of culture you don’t want in the team.”

Elaborating further on the two new debutants – Gurkeerat Mann and Rishi Dhawan – who didn’t really make a telling impact on debut, Dhoni said, “I felt it is always better to play games. It may be tough, may be a big game, but whenever you play big games, what happens is it gives you more experience. Take Manish Pandey for instance, in the last game – there was no question of hesitation about playing a big shot. That is something you have to encourage because it tells you a lot about the character of the individual. You want brave people in the side. Winning and losing keeps on happening. Ups and downs are part and parcel, but you want good characters in the team.”

Talking about youngsters and characters in the team who are leading by example, Dhoni shifted his focus to Virat Kohli and was all praise for his temperament and batting abilities. “He is one youngster who has developed really well. I still remember the days when he was part of the side, but dropped and then came back. I think he opened the innings for us and then batted lower down. I always felt he was a top-order batsman. And the good thing is once he got the chance he made sure he grabbed that opportunity. Nobody even talks about anyone else in that slot which I feel is the good part. Whenever you have an opportunity, you have to grab it. There are other individuals who got to bat at various levels, but I don’t think they grabbed it the way Virat has.

“The good thing is that he has consistently performed and improved his performance. Definitely he is the best amongst the Indian batsmen, along with Rohit in the shorter format. Virat reads the game really well, which I think is very important in the middle overs. Definitely, he is somebody that we’ll have to look up to in the future, because he’s somebody who will take the team forward for a long time.”