‘Miss Universe’ pitch won’t be enough: Dhoni

India captain backing young bowlers to deliver the goods.

KOLKATA: Just over a year ago, MS Dhoni called the Eden Gardens’ pitch ‘slow, difficult and ugly’.

But despite calling today’s track ‘miss universe’ in comparison, Dhoni knows his bowlers will still need to perform well if the hosts want to square the series today. India will be boosted by star batsman Virat Kohli’s availability for the match but the focus will be on the part-time bowlers. Yuvraj Sigh, Kohli and Suresh Raina performed the fifth bowler’s duties in the match at Chennai and gave away 77 runs in ten overs. Today, Dhoni knows a better effort will be needed from his bowlers.

“Injuries have forced us to try fresh bowlers and the new rules aren’t really helping either,” said Dhoni, on the eve of the second ODI at Eden Gardens. “The more they play, the better their performances will get. They just need proper exposure. It’s the batting that we need to work on.

“In this case, the new rules will help us. What’s important is to settle down and treat balls on merit while not looking for a big score straight away. We need to pace our innings well.”



The new rules permit just four fielders outside the circle in non-powerplay overs and allow two short balls per over. In Chennai, Dhoni himself was the prime example of how to pace the innings under pressure and use the new rules — he scored 18 off his first 51 balls but then went onto score an unbeaten 113 off 125 deliveries with seven fours and three sixes.

“If the set batsmen are there in the last few overs, you can still get a lot of runs. Earlier, people used to take advantage of the first 10 overs but you just need to be smart about things now.

“If you get off to a good start, more often than not you’re bound to get a good score.”

India might leave out Rohit Sharma today, replacing him with the in-form Ajinkya Rahane.

Sharma has hit just one half-century in his last 15 ODIs, reaching double figures just once in the last nine innings. Rahane, meanwhile, scored 42 and 28 in the Twenty20 series against Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2013.