Rohit will fire this time, says confident Dhoni

Dambulla, Aug. 24: Having fallen badly short of expectations here, the Indians cranked it up a notch during their final practice session here on Tuesday. All three departments were given importance as the side made optimum use of the time available going into the knockout game against New Zealand here on Wednesday.

“We have practiced hard for the last two days, had an optional session yesterday and a full session today. The preparation has been very good. Hopefully execution will be good as well,” said M.S. Dhoni on the day.

Two inept efforts with the bat in three games have been a huge disappointment. But the last two days has also given the team a chance to iron out their flaws.

“We had the luxury of having three nets today, one each for the medium pacers and spinners and an extra one for the local net bowlers,” said Dhoni, adding, “The batsmen are trying to work out their plans as to what needs to be done. They are not getting out to rash shots. They are trying to battle through and there are times when you can’t do that.”

Obviously the rest of the world is seeing some other tournament. If India reach a par score of 240, there will have to be contributions up and down the order given the conditions. Team selection has been rigid, but Dhoni is known to back particular players over extended periods. The failure to field specialist off-spinner R. Ashwin is puzzling and Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma may be given yet another chance on Wednesday.

“You have to see the strength and the stability one brings into the side. Jadeja has bowled well in a majority of matches. His batting has dipped but he gives us the option of playing with five bowlers.

“As far Rohit is concerned it’s a tricky situation for him. He has been in and out of the side. I don’t really think is good enough to decide on a player. His fitness has also improved. We are just hoping he comes up with a big knock,” Dhoni said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/29649" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-61638a24d50f0dc873a87e53145aa405" value="form-61638a24d50f0dc873a87e53145aa405" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="89412333" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.