ICC World Cup: Plenty of positives from warm-up game, insists Dhoni

As Indian team suffered yet another defeat, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is struggling to identify his playing XI for the high-voltage World Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on February 15

Adelaide: As Indian team suffered yet another defeat, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is struggling to identify his playing XI for the high-voltage World Cup clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on February 15.


MS Dhoni 

India lost its first warm-up game against top contenders Australia by 106 runs yesterday and now have one more game left against Afghanistan on Tuesday before the main tournament starts on February 14.

"It has been difficult for us. When the batsmen click, the bowlers don't and when the bowlers do, the batsmen don't. We need to sort that out. What's important is that we have one more game in our hand and before playing Pakistan it would be good to have the first XI in our hand," Dhoni said.

'Plenty of positives'
The Indian captain though said "there are plenty of positives in the game" for them. Asked what he was looking at for identifying the final XI, Dhoni said there were quite a few things to watch.

"It will depend on our utility cricketers. If the pitches remain as it is, we need out spinners to use the bounce more. It's a very long tournament and what we have seen is the team that does well is the one that comes from the bottom and moves rapidly up," he said.

Dhoni was out first ball yesterday, trying to hit Pat Cummins for a six but was caught at boundary by Mitchell Starc. Asked about his dismissal, he said, "I just played my shot with so many runs needed and the fielder up, but I never really thought it would go right to Starc."

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