Openers need to be more patient: Dhoni

New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS) With the England One-Day International (ODI) series round the corner, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his openers needed to show more patience especially when the ball is moving.

Opener and explosive batsman Virender Sehwag was dropped from the third and final ODI against Pakistan here Sunday. His replacement Ajinkya Rahane failed to impress while Gautam Gambhir once again gave his wicket away cheaply.

“Our openers need to show more patience, especially when the ball is moving around,” Dhoni told reporters here in the post match press conference.

“Use of two new balls could be one of the reasons why we haven’t had a good start.”

When questioned about his decision to drop the Delhi dasher, Dhoni said: “Sehwag was a last minute change, we decided to give some of the new players a chance.”

India managed to prevent a whitewash winning the dead rubber by 10 runs.

Dhoni commended his bowlers and fielders for a superlative effort but rued the failure of his batsmen.

“I am very happy with the win. It was a complete team effort, we fielded exceptionally well and our bowling was right on the money. We ended up saving more than 20 runs thanks to our fielding,” said the 31-year-old.

“We should have scored more runs but with the ball seaming around in the morning conditions were difficult. We lost a lot of wickets in the middle. When we came out to bowl we didn’t pay attention to the scoreboard, our sole aim was to bowl in good areas.”

Dhoni praised debutant Shami Ahmed who ended the match with figures of 1/23.

“Shami Ahmed’s performance was really very good. The more he plays the better he will get.”

Asked about using Yuvraj Singh sparingly as a bowler in the series, Dhoni said: “He needs to be given more time to get use to the rule changes as a bowler. It is a little difficult to adjust to the four fielders outside the 30-yard circle. That is why we are playing (Ravindra) Jadeja right now.”

“With the new rules we need a good all-rounder.”

IANS 2013-01-06 21:36:02