Batting at the death worries Dhoni

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 14 Oktober 2014 | 21.24

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli's flickering form isn't the only reason for him to step down the order in the second ODI against West Indies at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Saturday. For Indian skipper MS Dhoni, batting at the back end of an innings is a greater concern.

His worry obviously stems from India's inability to go berserk - by modern standards - in the last few overs, including the batting powerplay. "I thought that we needed our most experienced batsmen to bat at No. 4, 5 and 6. We wanted to capitalise on the powerplay. Yes, it did help with Virat (Kohli) going in to bat after the seamers had bowled. It also meant Rayudu gets a bit more time to settle down," Dhoni said after the win. The debate over Virat Kohli's stepping down the order was thus settled.

One cannot turn a blind eye to the batting that fizzled out in the death overs. That was one luxury that Dhoni had enjoyed during his successful World Cup campaign in 2011. The stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, who had demolished bowling attacks for almost a decade, have faded out since. And Dhoni is yet to find a trusted soldier down the order who could run away with a game at the back end. His best bet now deep down the order is Ravindra Jadeja.

The Saurashtra all rounder has played an important role with the ball but his consistent hitting prowess is a fair distance away from being an assured one.

Dhoni, just four months away from starting the title defence, makes no bones about the gap in the armoury. Suresh Raina and Kohli's dismissals on Saturday left him livid. The captain conceded that India could have lost the game after falling - what he thought was 20-30 runs short. "We haven't done consistently well in the powerplay overs. We are losing wickets between the 36th and the 40th overs. Even today, we lost two set batsmen. Losing wickets in the powerplay delays the slog. If we can have a couple of wickets more in hand then we could extend the slog and get the extra runs. It's certainly something we are trying to work out," was the skipper's assessment.

Giving away runs generously at the death overs adds to his concern. Thus, he is in no mood to experiment with chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav. When asked about him, Dhoni said, "You'll have to wait. For now, I have issues pertaining to the third seamer. We need a death bowler. We will have to sort it out before the World Cup. It will be nice if we could give him an opportunity in between, though."

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