KANPUR: It’s were Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s saga in Tests unveiled, when Anil Kumble’s injury induced him to assume the helmanship. He responded with maturity, squaring the series. A year and an half later, Dhoni is back where it all began, though the pressure on his rugged shoulders isn’t that onerous. “The journey has been good. It’s al about how you deal the tough situations. Last time, the situations were tailor-made for us.
This time we have to start from the scratch,” he pointed out.
There are a few concerns though, like Virender Sehwag not converting his starts to big innings. “You don’t really want to tell a player like him what to do. He is more of an aggressor and is not the kind of guy who would stick to the wicket for one-and-half days. We want him to play his natural game,” he said. Besides, the top-order capsized in conditions conducive to seam bowling in the first hour’s play in Ahmedabad. “It depends on individual approach. With some assistance for the pacers, you get out to good deliveries at times. You have to keep that good delivery out and bat. In international cricket, you are mostly up against quality bowlers,” he said. While assuring that Harbhajan Singh missing from the practice had nothing to do with his fitness, he backed both S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma, thereby depriving the white-anters of a possible assumption of playing eleven on Tuesday. Sreesanth bowled with pace and swung it a lot but we will have to wait till tomorrow. Ishant is back in rhythm as we saw in Ahmedabad. He is putting in a lot of effort,” said Dhoni, who typically refused to comment on the playing eleven.
Meanwhile, he praised Gautam Gambhir profusely. “Thrust him into whatever condition and he would play accordingly.
He can shift gears easily and uses his feet well against the spinners.
He has been consistently in good form over the past oneand- half years and whenever the team needed, he delivered.
Once he sets himself well, he goes for big innings,” he said.
On the sidelines, Dhoni remarked that Green Park strip seems better for bowlers than the Motera deck. “Compared to Motera, the pitch here looks different. It has got some grass and the base is dry. But you cannot really predict how the wicket would play the next five days. Here the weather is cooler and as we know, initially there would be some help for the seamers. The outfield is not lush, so there would be some reverse swing for the fast bowlers. It will break up as well. Overall, I feel it would be a better wicket for the bowlers,” he said.
And he would have no qualms whatsoever in batting first, “First sessions will be important. Everyday there would be a bit of help for the pacers. Even in ODIs, we see the first 30-45 minutes are important. Now here you have to decide whether to bat first and go hard at the first one hour. Once you see through the hour, it becomes easy to keep batting. Or you bat in the fourth innings and at the receiving end of a pitch where the ball would be turning. So teams love to bat first here,” he signed off.
