JOIN US'Batting revolves around Yuvi'
“Our batting has always revolved around Yuvraj batting at four,” said Dhoni when asked about the Punjab batsman’s importance to side. “He is the kind of player who can change gears at any point and take control of the game.
“He has played over 250 ODIs, which also means he has got a lot of experience behind him.” More often than not, India have relied on part-timers to complete the quota of the fifth bowler and Dhoni felt Yuvraj fit the bill perfectly. “His bowling is very important for us because if we decide to play with four bowlers, we will use the other part-timer as the fifth bowler. Then his bowling comes into play and he has done decently well for us with the ball.
“We are expecting him to score runs in this game and it looks like a good track. If you do well in batting, it reflects in your bowling as well. He has got both dimensions of the game and that will help us,” he explained.
Dhoni also said Shikhar Dhawan would most likely make his debut. “Both of us scored a century in a Challenger Series match (in 2005 in Mumbai for India Seniors) and I got a chance to play for India because I was a wicketkeeper-batsman and I had to fight with five or six players or at the most ten.
“But being a batsman, you have to fight with more batsmen. I think he has done well, there have been ups and downs in his career, but he has been quite consistent. It is good that he has got his chance finally and I am hoping he will score,” he noted.
India are without a leg-spinner in the squad, but Dhoni said it could be an option in the future series. “We have got two leg-spinners, Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla, and both of them have done well. And the third guy, Sarabjit Ladda, has done well in the Challengers. So it can be one of the options to try in the next series, because it’s always good to have a leg-spinner in the side, especially with the kind of variations he has got,” he remarked.