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It’s all about performing well: Dhoni

Principal Correspondent

Warns against reading too much into the Aussies’ purported inexperience

Dhoni says it’s not about settling scores
’Team composition will depend on the pitches’

— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

STRESS ON COLLECTIVE EFFORT: Dhoni feels India’s success will depend on playing well as a unit.

Bangalore: M.S. Dhoni struck to the basics of ‘playing good cricket to counter Ricky Ponting’s men’ while speaking about the Indian team’s approach to the marquee Test series commencing here on October 9.

With both the teams sharing a history of close contests sullied by bad blood and excessive hype, Dhoni said: “Rather than getting desperate and wanting to settle things out there, it is better to take match by match. We need to achieve our goals day by day and session by session. It’s not about settling scores because in that case you get desperate and that affects your game.”

Dhoni spoke to the media on the sidelines of the preparatory camp at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday. Dhoni mentioned that not much must be read into the inexperience tag linked with the Aussies.

Main thing

“The main thing is to play good cricket. It has nothing to do with either having an experienced player in the side or not, yes experience counts but at the end of the day it’s all about being there on the field, putting your hand up and performing well.

“The team that will be victorious will be the one that plays well in all the sessions of a Test. They have players who are talented and as for us if we play well we will have an edge but if we don’t play well then we won’t have that edge,” Dhoni said. Dhoni stressed on playing well as a unit. “It’s not about personal achievement, it’s more about doing well as a team. Personally I feel fresh,” Dhoni said while refusing to comment on the selection issues over senior players and as for Australian team’s security concerns, the Indian ODI skipper added, “It doesn’t bother us as we are looking at our preparation.”

On the hype that shadows India-Australia matches, Dhoni said: “Hype has a lot to do with what happened when they came to India. They did well here in the Test matches and again the hype was crwieated when we went there and played well. We are top-ranked teams and people expect competitive cricket and some aggression on the field and that’s why the expectations are high.”

Dhoni was cautious while speaking about the probable Indian team composition.

“It depends on the pitches and most of them have been re-laid and some of them don’t assist the spinners as much as they do. It’s a long series and we will have back-up in the side but it is tough to say what kind of side will be picked.”

Praises Upton

He praised the contribution of mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton.

“He does a lot on the abstracts that go around the game and it is also about mental toughness.”

Any difference in perspective as he flits between ‘ODI skipper’ and ‘normal Test player’ roles?

“You don’t lose hair,” Dhoni said and added, “there is less pressure but as a wicketkeeper you have to assist the captain.”

And as for the endorsement controversy and related court case with a local cosmetic firm, Dhoni said: “It is handled by my business manager. Something is going on, it always goes on.”

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