Well, normally Indian captain MS Dhoni does not like to reveal the strategy for any event, especially an event like the upcoming World Cup, but perhaps to cool down the speculations running around regarding Rohit Sharma’s slot in the team, he has expressed his opinion. Relying on the consistent performance shown by Rahane Dhoni said “I personally feel Ajinkya is well-suited to do the opener’s job. Even in the IPL, he opens and plays well on the most difficult wickets. He should take the responsibility of being the opener, which means Rohit can shift to the middle order. Ideally, it’s a place that suits both and gives us much more depth. It’s something we’ll have to wait and watch.”
Accepting the need for improvement by Indian bowlers during the death over, Dhoni clearly admitted “The death bowling, with the extra fielder inside, has become tougher for the bowlers. (Mohammed) Shami is the one who has consistently bowled yorkers for us at the death. You may have a few variations but bowling good yorkers is non-negotiable.”
On the role of spinners he said “We’ll have to see who all are there. Ravindra Jadeja is there, Axar Patel is there and he is someone who can contribute. We’re trying Kuldeep (Yadav) in this series, Amit Mishra is there. There are not many games, but we’ll see what we can achieve from the ODIs we have before the World Cup.”
Dhoni emphasized on the need for offering their best by each Indian cricketer and stressed “The most important thing will be to look to win this series, but at the same time we want to do a few things. We don’t want to go to Australia and say, ‘Okay, we should have done this’. We’ll try to make the most of the opportunities we’ve got to see what all the cricketers we have can offer.”
However, keeping in view the recent defeat of Team India in the 1st ODI against West Indies, the millions of fans feel that a very clear vision, a clear road map, and totally commitment by every player is required to win the upcoming World Cup. Also it is high time that a long term action plan focusing on and developing each and every cricketer likely to be considered for World Cup is worked out. Its planning and implementation should also be carried out from this very moment.