Zeenews Sports Bureau
Sydney: Faced with a do-or-die situation, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all set to field his three regular openers rather than experiment with a pinch hitter at the top of the order in Sunday’s crucial tri-series One-dayer against Australia.
"We have three genuine, proper openers. I see no good reason why I should sent in a pinch-hitter. All three score at a brisk pace, they are good at hitting boundaries as well as in taking singles.”
"There is no requirement of a pinch hitter when all three are playing," said Dhoni, indicating the rotation policy is as good as over for the rest of the tournament.
Putting an end to the speculations regarding a cold war between him and vice-captain Virender Sehwag, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday denied reports of any rift between the two.
"If you listen to the press conference on tape, you would get the answer yourself as to what actually I said and what I meant," said Dhoni.
"You can't particularly see the same question, it might be a build up to the first question and often what we don't answer, because of the first part of the question we answer, it actually is the answer to the second or third question," added Dhoni.
"You feel a little awkward initially. You may sometimes think the person is actually believing (what's been reported). And the second person thinks may be he said it. But once you go through the talks, it gets back to as it was.”
Talking to reporters here during a press conference on Saturday, Dhoni claimed that the media misinterpreted his comments on the seniors and the rotation policy.
“I do not have any differences with Virender Sehwag. There is no divide in the team. My comments were misinterpreted,” he said.
He further went on to say that there won’t be any rotation in the team and all senior players will feature in the playing XI.
"We are not looking to rotate. It's injuries which are now rotating the players. It's not in our control. I had said we would rotate in the first half of the tournament because then you could rotate, it didn't put pressure on us because we were in early part of the tournament," he said.
Speaking on Sunday’s clash against Australia, Dhoni said the team is ready for the contest but was unsure whether Vinay Kumar would feature in final playing XI.
“Vinay Kumar is unfit; we are not sure whether he will play. Zaheer Khan might play in his absence.” Dhoni said.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Saturday, February 25, 2012, 08:54