'Zaheer should be as respected as Sachin'

Indian skipper MS Dhoni jumped to the defence of an under-scanner Zaheer Khan, claiming that the veteran paceman was the Sachin Tendulkar of Indian bowling and deserved to be treated with as much respect.

“You know it is easier to go after a bowler,” Dhoni said on Saturday when asked about Zaheer’s recent performance and the subsequent criticism. “If you see his performance (over the years), I think we should give him equal respect like the one we give to Sachin because he is the Sachin for us when it comes to (the) bowling department and he has led the attack in the last few years. He has been our best bowler whatever the format may be.

May be in the last few games he may not have got the wickets but we have a chance of giving him a few games because we are in a stage where we can do that,” he elaborated.

“The reason being that I think in this tournament the point system is such that in the England game (in case of victory) we don’t really carry forward the points from this stage to the next stage. But like if you are playing in a tournament where you are in a knockout stage and something like this (poor performance) happens then you want to play with the fifth bowler but then who do you drop because it becomes a tricky situation. You know all of them we are talking about are match-winners, who can on their day take the game away.

So you would like to give them a longer rope so that in the knock-out stages they really do well and win a few games for us,” he explained in his own convoluted style.

Dhoni, however, admitted that Zaheer’s form along with lack of runs from Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir was a matter of concern. “It does put a bit of pressure,” he remarked.

The captain added that he would want to give some game-practice to as many members as possible. “The other players who are part of the side, you also want to give a game so that in the knock-out stage everybody has played a match.”