India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday defended out-of-form Gautam Gambhir and Ravichandran Ashwin, but did admit that the former was going through a "lean patch" and the latter was trying to use "too many variations", says a report in Deccan Chronicle, adding that Gambhir has been going through a lean patch but he is an experienced player.
“I believe he has batted a bit better in the last few games. Unlike some of the earlier matches, he didn't look tentative and was a lot more decisive about stroke-making," Dhoni said at the post-match media conference here, adding, "I believe he is improving and don't forget he is an amazing player of spin bowling. Ideally, we want him to bat till the 35th-40th over," said Dhoni defending the Delhi left-hander, who has now scored only 156 runs in his last eight ODIs.
Similarly when asked about a sudden slump in off-spinner Ashwin's form, Dhoni reasoned, "May be he was using variations a bit too much but he has now realised his mistake. In the last couple of matches, he has been more consistent about length. He has not used too many variations and was trying to bowl to one line. But then you also need a perfect mix as variation has been Ashwin's strength. The new ODI rules, with five fielders inside the circle, has also made it slightly difficult."
Meanwhile according to a report in The Times Of India, Mahendra Singh Dhoni said had India batted "more sensibly", the hosts could have won the fifth and final ODI here and wrapped up the series by a bigger margin. The ODI series was as tight as the Test series. We should have won this game, maybe we should have batted more sensibly. We were 30-35 runs short," Dhoni said at the post-match presentation.
"But it is a young side and it will learn with time." Although he lauded the bowlers' performance in this series, Dhoni said death bowling still continues to haunt India. Thankfully, in three games, we didn't have to bowl those death overs, it remains an area of concern.”
According to a report in Mail Today, there were a lot of positives to look forward to, according to the skipper. "We have been struggling when it comes to that slot of a perfect all-rounder. Of course, it's always good to have a seaming all-rounder. Irfan Pathan is the only person we have got, but we need to groom someone. I personally felt Ravindra Jadeja was the kind of player we need to look at," he said.
"Of course, in this series, he has bowled well. What we have seen with his batting is that he has shown improvement. With Irfan getting fit, you can look at certain combinations."
