Following two dismal tours of England and Australia, where India lost eight Test matches on the trot, the men in blue crashed out of the World T20 in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. However Mahendra Singh Dhoni put up a brave face after their win against South Africa, which wasn’t enough to take India to the next stage in World T20, and was in no mood to be critical of his team and ruled out any scope of an 'overhaul', says a report in The Times Of India.
"The same question was asked when we lost in England and Australia. This is the one question that comes up when we have not done well, but just see our performance here. We lost one game, and lost it badly," he said.
He then blamed the heavy defeat to Australia in their Super Eights opener, and the mauling that India received at the hands of Shane Watson and David Warner in that game, on the 'wet ball' again. "We all know what impact rain has on the bowlers, especially spinners and bowlers who don't bowl at 140 kmph plus. Let's get practical about what the reason was, and then assess if it's the fault of the players. It is not. It can happen in this format. You are at the stage where other games are making an impact. You don't want that kind of situation to happen but sometimes you are just forced to accept it," Dhoni explained.
Meanwhile Sourav Ganguly writes in Hindustan Times that Dhoni looked disappointed after losing the toss as he was mentally ready to chase, and the inclusion of seven batsmen was because he felt that the surface at Premadasa was better to bat on at night.
“But he would be upset at the way his players did not accelerate at the right time. Rohit Sharma got stuck in the middle and had Dhoni and Suresh Raina not played so well at the end, India would not have reached where they did. Dhoni repeatedly under-utilises himself in this format but that's his decision and although not many agree to it, people connected to Indian cricket have started to accept it. That he has not scored a 50 in T20 World Cups is because he bats so low,” writes Ganguly, adding that after looking at the Australia-Pakistan game, India could have played another spinner, and although L Balaji picked up wickets, he was a touch expensive, especially at a time when the margin of win had to be more than 30 runs.
“India's elimination has taken away the fizz from the tournament, but there are some serious teams playing over the next few days,” adds Ganguly.
Meanwhile according to a report in The Hindu, India may have failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the ongoing ICC World Twenty20, but four wins out of five matches have pushed the M.S. Dhoni-led side up by one place to the second spot in the latest T20 International team rankings, released on Wednesday.
“India now trails Sri Lanka (129) by nine points and is followed by Pakistan (118) and England (118). South Africa has lost its No. 1 position in the championship table after failing to qualify for the semi-finals,” says the report.
“Virat Kohli’s good run catapulted him to the 10th position with a jump of nine places. Among bowlers, Harbhajan Singh dropped out of the top-20 as he slipped to 23rd with a loss of six places. R. Ashwin zoomed to 25th spot after gaining 17 places,” adds the report.