Bengaluru, Oct 8: Having led Team India to a thrilling one-wicket win in the Mohali Test, captain MS Dhoni is keen to register a clean sweep in the two-match series. But he has warned his teammates against complacency as he is expecting the visiting Australian team to come back hard in the second Test starting October 9.
Addressing the press conference on the eve of the Bengaluru Test, the Indian captain said that he knew Australia would go all out to level the series and his team would be ready to face the task ahead.
“They will come up strong. That’s their culture and they don’t give up easily, we have to prepare for that and respond to the task,” Dhoni said when asked about the fierce competition that lay ahead of the Indian team.
India has not been able to win a Test in nearly over a decade at Bengaluru but the Indian captain exuded confidence that his team would break the jinx.
“We will try our best and that’s what we are supposed to do,” he said with characteristic confidence.
When asked to comment on the wicket, Dhoni said, “The wicket is damp right now and I don’t want to predict too much [at the moment]. Once it dries up we will have a look. There is not too much grass cover on the wicket and we will see how hard it is and how the conditions are before taking a call.”
VVS Laxman, who batted India to victory at Mohali despite a back spasm, was recovering well according to the captain. “Laxman is much better right now. We will take a call in the evening or tomorrow before the game. He didn’t practice today,” he said about the gifted batsman. “Five days of [playing a] game can be difficult if you are injured at the start and we will take a call later.”
On the team composition for the second Test he said, “As of now everybody is available for selection apart from Laxman. None of the players have any injuries to my knowledge.”
On being asked about recovering from the emotionally draining Mohali Test, Dhoni said, “We tried to make use of the three-day break in the best possible manner. The first day goes as a travelling day and you rest and recover after that. Yesterday we had a long practice session. Now we had a slightly lighter practice session. Nowadays we have a three-day break before every Test match so it is the same. It is very important to rest [rather] than practice [sometimes]. The body needs rest and [rest] can help you [to perform better].”
The Indian captain also spoke about the grey areas his team have been working on.
“At times you drop catches - what really matters is how much you give in practice sessions. If you do everything right [in practice] and still drop catches then it’s okay. You can’t do too much about it because we are trying to get as close [as possible] to the match situation during such practice sessions. When you win a game, you just don’t talk much about what went wrong in that game. What we have realised is that even when you win a game, there are areas that need improvement. We are aware of that. Despite the amount of effort we take to rectify the problems, in cricket [they] always [crop up] at some point of time. The more the gap between the mistakes, the better it is for the side.”
Elaborating on successful strategies he went on to say, “You cannot give too many runs with the new ball. Once you have got close to the opposition target you should not lose too many wickets and you should try to get as much lead as possible. Not dropping catches is an old mantra that still goes strong. It is important not to let [the opposition] rotate the strike easily and we have seen that run-outs can change the course of this game. If someone gets a start, they should try to make it big.”
On the possibility of S Sreesanth featuring in the Playing XI Dhoni said, “He is bowling well in the nets. There is no major niggle as far as Sreesanth is concerned. Again we will take a call tomorrow. We will go for the combination that best suits [our needs in this Test]. It is good to have a left-arm seamer along with a right-arm seamer.”
