Adelaide: Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's press conferences are normally repetitive irrespective of whether India are playing in the World Cup or a bilateral series and Saturday's interaction with the Indian media contingent at the Adelaide Oval was no different.
The only difference was that Dhoni gave witty answers to some of the predictable queries, displaying his dry sense of humour while answering similar questions asked in different ways.
With most questions being asked on whether India would make it 6-0 against Pakistan here tomorrow, Dhoni had no option but to answer it differently.
Having answered thrice to different scribes that he doesn't care about stats and history, he was asked how relevant this 5-0 figure is considering that it all began in 1992.
"No, the only thing that matters is you have to answer a lot of questions regarding that. Apart from that, it doesn't really matter frankly speaking," Dhoni said with a smile.
"The reason being we are talking about a span of 20 years maybe or even more. The format has changed, the players have changed. The way the game is approached, that has completely changed. It's just something -- it's nice to talk about. More than that, I don't think it really has any impact on the game."
While he gave an elaborate answer about no injury worries in the team, Dhoni was again and again asked if anyone was injured.
"I don't know what will happen in the evening but as of now everyone is fit and available. That's what the physio told me. That there are no injury issues," the smile refused to leave his face.
From repartees to an answer laced with sarcasm, Dhoni had it all.
A scribe asked, "You guys have not won a single match in the tournament save a warm-up game against Afghanistan and let's discount that," and even before he could finish asking the question pat came the reply, "Why? Why do you want us to discount that win?"
He then became a bit serious and said, "I have always believed that let bygones be bygones (jo beet gaya who beet gaya). No point thinking about what has gone by and rather concentrate on executing the plans we have in hand."
The best was saved for the last when a journalist asked about Shikhar Dhawan's poor form.
"Well, now if I have to listen to what fans feel then I would find that someone would come up and make a suggestion like 'Please replace Dhawan with Mohammed Shami as an opener and get someone else to bowl in Shami's place'! "You don't have to listen to everything that fans say," Dhoni said.
