MS Dhoni has called for vast improvement from his fast bowlers after
their inability to exert any pressure on New Zealand, with 278 on the
board, led to a 0-3 series defeat with a game to go. India's failure to
contain the opposition has been a major factor in their run of six
successive overseas ODIs without a win, and Dhoni said he had no clarity
at the moment on which fast bowlers he could take with him to the 2015
World Cup.
"When it comes to the bowling department, we are still in the same phase
wherein we are still looking at who our permanent bowlers are," Dhoni
said. "We know the spinners and they look good and we know they are the
ones who will carry on until the World Cup provided there are no
injuries. Fast bowling, we are still not sure who our choices are and
what individuals we are looking forward to.
"Back at home we talk about pace and bounce. We get bowlers who can bowl
quick but they end up giving more runs without even bowling at the
slog. So we have to find a fair balance.
"We need a fair amount of improvement especially in our bowling
department. If the batsman is playing good shots, you accept it but it
is important that we bowl according to what the plan is and not go off
it. To some extent it was quite a disappointing bowling performance from
the fast bowlers. But the positive is the spinners bowled really well."
Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin slowed New Zealand considerably after the
first ten overs, giving away just 30 runs in the next ten. But on either
side of that period, boundaries flowed off the fast bowlers, nullifying
the pressure the spinners had been able to create. Dhoni said the
quicks had been unable to stick to what had been planned.
"It was a wicket where you would like the bowlers to hit the back of
length mark close to the off-stump area but right from the start we gave
away too many boundaries," Dhoni said. "We gave too much width to the
batsmen and the balls were quite short, which meant they could freely
score off them. So we didn't start off well. Not only that, after the
10th over when we initiated the spinners to come and bowl, they bowled
quite well and then when we again asked the fast bowlers to come back
and bowl, they gave away the runs freely, which means we weren't able to
hang on to the pressure created by the spinners."
Jadeja and Ashwin troubled Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor with turn and
bounce during that initial ten-over period. A wicket at that point
could have meant a different game, but Dhoni took both spinners off
after five overs each. He did not have faith in his fast bowlers after
seeing their opening spells and decided to hold back his spinners for
the latter stage of the chase, by when he expected the asking-rate would
have climbed.
"I saw the first ten overs how the fast bowlers bowled. I wasn't sure
they would be able to keep the pressure on. So I personally thought that
it was important to keep the spinners, especially Jadeja, and use them
later to some extent when they [New Zealand] had to go for the big
shots. But the way the fast bowlers bowled in the middle overs, it meant
that they never really had to play those big shots. That was a crucial
phase where, with the open field, we should not have given away too many
runs. But we were giving a boundary every over and we were not able to
build any pressure."
Dhoni said he was happy with the talent pool of fast bowlers within the
side but stressed that the bowlers needed to learn how to improvise
according to the situation.
"When it comes to the talent part, we definitely have bowlers who can
bowl well," Dhoni said. "But at the same time they will have to start
using their brains more and improvise themselves what needs to be done.
This is one area where we lack when it comes to the fast-bowling
department. But if you just see the talent aspect definitely we have got
bowlers who can do well.
"Shami is someone who has been quite consistent apart from this series.
Bhuvi has been off this series but he has been good overall. If you look
at the whole pool of bowlers, we can keep working on them, but at the
end of the day they need to push themselves because with rule changes it
is going to be quite tough. But it hasn't been rule changes in this
series, it has been bad bowling. We have to keep it tight, but we have a
pool of bowlers when it comes to talent."
Posts
cricket news
ReplyDelete