MS Dhoni asks batsmen to improve consistency after another winless overseas tour

MS Dhoni wants his batsmen to show more consistency overseas

As India finished their tours of South Africa and New Zealand without a win, skipper MS Dhoni chose to put the focus on the batsmen and their lack of consistency.

“Our bowling performance was really good. Still we can improve our batting,” he said after India could not drive home a strong position in the second Test against New Zealand at Wellington which ended in a draw.

The result saw New Zealand clinch the two-match Test series 1-0 after they had won the first test at Auckland.

It also stretched India’s winless streak outside the sub-continent to 14 Test matches with the team’s last away win coming at Roseau in June, 2011 against the West Indies.

Dhoni said that there were some positives and felt that India showed they were improving, but not enough.

“Both the wickets (in New Zealand) turned out to be going towards the flatter side, especially this (Wellington) one, it just kept getting better and better for batting.

“So I think looking at that our bowling performance was really good,” he said, after New Zealand posted a mammoth second innings score of 680-8 declared.

“You may say we have not really capitalised on the kind of starts we got when it came to our batting department but still there’s plenty of improvements. I’ll take that and move on to the next series.

“Maybe all the batsmen have got one good innings in the last four Test matches. If we can improve that and make it two or three innings, then the situation of the team really improves.”

The Indian team will now head to Bangladesh to take part in the Asia Cup and the World T20. India’s next test series will also be away from home when they tour England later this year for a 5-match series.