Indian skipper MS Dhoni is not happy how his youngsters approached the first T20 against Zimbabwe. They lost the humdinger by two runs. In the last over of the match, India needed to score eight runs from six balls but succumbed to the pressure as India lost the wicket of Axar Patel at the crucial moment of the match.
Captain Dhoni told them that they don’t need to do the mistake to learn after two runs loss to Zimbabwe in the first T20I on Saturday.
The inexperienced Indian batting lineup collapsed at a crucial juncture of the match as the visitors ended up losing the game by two runs for their first defeat of the tour.
“I feel, though we lost the game – it is disappointing – it is still a learning curve for the youngsters, provided they are learning out of it,” said Dhoni.
“You have to take it in a serious manner because whenever you will represent the country, whenever they get a chance to be part of the proper Indian team for a consistent period of time, they will feel the pressure. That will be the time when a game like this or a tour like this will really help them ease out that pressure,” he said.
In the last ball of the match, India needed to score four runs but captain MS Dhoni failed to complete the match. When Rishi Dhawan came to bat Dhoni was at the non-striking end. Rishi has missed one ball while another was called wide by the umpire. He ha taken a single of the fifth ball. But Zimbabwe pacer Nevill Madziva held his nerve to win the first match of this series.
Dhoni thinks youngsters need to be more sensible to their game.
“I felt the last ball was brilliant but that is what my job is, so maybe I am the person to finish the job. But at the same time, we kept losing wickets and what happens at that stage is that you are losing wickets and you are giving one dot ball and at the same time, the set batsman is not getting a strike.
“I felt the batsmen will have to take the responsibility. The reason being, few of them, they were set, they were batting well. When you are chasing targets, you need to take it to the end and then look to play the shots. That was something that was lacking in this game,” Dhoni pointed out.
India’s second string team have already won the ODI series 3-0. BCCI have given rest to a couple of marquee players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Mohammad Shami. Only Dhoni has decided to lead this team as he will get next opportunity to play a series in October in 2016.
“It is not for me. If I had to bat up, I could easily bat at four for this team. But what is important is for these youngsters to bat at that number because this is an opportunity for them. The only reason I am here is to understand them and at the same time guide them as to what has to be done.”
Dhoni also said that there is a huge difference between the atmosphere of international cricket and IPL as in the international cricket there is no room for error.
“Let’s talk about IPL, it doesn’t really matter. You can play your big shots. There is no pressure of result. You say ‘okay, in 14 games if you play five or six innings, you will take the team through.’ Over here it is slightly different. This is where you have to personally tell them as to ‘this could have been done at that point of time.’ And also that’s how you learn. It is not that you have to commit a mistake to learn.”
This loss left the players gutted as they didn’t expect this after winning the three-match ODI series with a big margin. Dhoni said that is why the international cricket needs to be respected.
“It doesn’t matter which team you are playing. It is a levelling experience. What I mean by that is you need to give a lot of respect to cricket and when you go in to bat or bowl in the field, irrespective of the opposition, you have to be at your best.
“You can’t play with your reputation or play eleven that looks good on paper. What is important is how well you play on the field, how well you are executing. It is the cricket that wins you the games, not the teams. I felt we were way off today, both in the bowling and the batting department,” he added.