Dhoni to work on permutations and combinations ahead of the 2015 World Cup
M.S. Dhoni and Virat Kohli celebrate India's 48-run victory against the West Indies in New Delhi. (Photo:PTI)
New Delhi: India bounced back in style levelling the five-match one-day series against the West Indies 1-1 here on Saturday evening, but it is evident that skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is focusing on the “bigger picture”. The ongoing series the last at home this year gives Dhoni a chance to gauge his team’s strengths, besides providing an ideal platform to work on the permutations and combinations ahead of the 2015 World Cup.
“Who’s our death bowler? Who’s the third seamer? This is a question that we need to answer,” said Dhoni, after India’s 48-run win over the West Indies in the second one-dayer.
“In these (Indian) conditions, we can easily play three or four spinners, but with the World Cup around the corner, we have to sort out our death bowling issue. That is the reason why we are fielding three seamers (during this series).”
India seem keen to finalise their opening pair through this series, while Virat Kohli’s form — and batting position — is on their minds too. The Delhi batsman was moved down to No.4 (from his usual one down slot) and Dhoni said it was “part of the experiment”.“Virat is an experienced player and understood that the team needed him at that situation. We were able to convince him on that,” the 33-year old said.
“We haven’t been capitalising on scoring opportunities towards the end, so we decided to have the most experienced batsmen, Kohli, Raina and myself, at numbers 4, 5 and 6.
“It would also, in some way, disrupt the West Indies’ plans. Normally, they bring in Jerome Taylor when Virat bats because of which he doesn’t bowl too many overs with the new ball. But here, when Virat came in, there wasn’t much pace in the wicket. It helped both Kohli and the team. But is this the final batting order? No, we cannot say that yet,” explained Dhoni.
India have put up contrasting shows in the first two one-dayers. An 124-run defeat in the opener was followed by a much-disciplined effort from the bowlers in the Delhi ODI. While many were expecting ‘chinaman’ Kuldeep Yadav to make his debut, Dhoni said it was all about “fielding the best XI”.
“It’s important to win games and for that we have to field the best XI,” he said. “We want to give Kuldeep games, but not at the cost of team’s stability. I am not sure how good he is with the bat. I know (Amit) Mishra can bat a bit. We saw that the tailenders need to contribute.”
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