Sport
India need to rethink on use of seniors

Nagpur (PTI): India were outperformed by Australia in every department of the game, but the hosts need to fix few glaring problems quickly in order to put their ODI team in place.

Fielding is one area where India stood thoroughly exposed and was visibly the biggest difference between the two sides. India also need to work out how to use the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid in a better way.

The ODI series was lost with the defeat in a high-scoring sixth game here yesterday, but India need to learn the lessons provided by the rubber.

Australians have more players in the 30s than their Indian counterparts and some of them even older, but the fitness level of their players is way apart.

"The Australians saved 10-15 runs in the field and, taking that into consideration, we were chasing not 318 but more like 330 or 335", skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, indicating one big area of concern for the team.

The Indian XI on Sunday had just over 50 per cent players in their mid or late twenties with the rest in their 30s.

Even the visitors were feeling the strain of playing in the heat and humidity of the sub-continent in spite of their superior fitness, and the Indians especially the seniors like Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Zaheer Khan were no different.

Tendulkar displayed glimpses of his prime in his last two innings. The master batsman's dismissal after having put on 140 runs yesterday put the skids on the Indian run-chase with the asking rate having gone just beyond 7.

Sport

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