Shot selection and lack of pacers to be blamed for loss to Australia

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has blamed his pacers and poor shot selection by his batsmen for the lacklustre performance against Australia yesterday.

“The way we started, we weren’t able to build partnerships. We should have got closer. I am disappointed with the shot selection of our batsmen today. Once you are set it’s important to carry on,” Dhoni said after the match.

“We were in a decent position to chase down and at one point the game was 50/50. It was important the batsman carried on till the Powerplay. We could have done that but we played shots that were not really intended. That harmed us.” he said.

“It’s important that when we chase we have to make solid partnerships, especially between the 25th and 35th over and you can’t lose any wickets at that period,” he added.

Dhoni said that the lack of genuine fast bowlers affected his side.

“We don’t have genuine fast bowlers, we have more swing bowlers, so we couldn’t generate the bounce that the Australian bowlers did. The bowlers had to hit the deck from the start. If you can dig it in, you get extra bounce,” he contemplated.

Defending his spinners, Dhoni said, “The spinners did well though when we finished off (the Australian innings), we gave too many runs away.”