GROS ISLET: India has the money, the power and the experience in Twenty20 cricket but none of that could save them from a painful exit from the World Twenty20 after three defeats in the Super Eight stage.
After losses to Australia and West Indies left them with a slim chance of progress to the last four, India suffered a last-ball defeat to Sri Lanka on Tuesday that will add to the criticism they are likely to face on their return home to their cricket-mad country.
“We get appreciation and we get criticism, they are the two far ends and it is not something they haven’t seen. We have gone through a lot... we all know what is expected,” said Dhoni, who expected to receive some of the sharpest criticism himself.
“As captain you are always under pressure. I think it’s the responsibility of the captain to explain why the team didn’t do well because he’s the face of the team.
“He gets the credit when he goes well and he also gets the criticism. It shouldn’t reach into your private life but we are living in a country where cricket is a big sport and each time we go out we are expected to win.”
Those expectations had been raised even further by the success of the Indian Premier League with many predicting dominance for the Indians on the international stage — even without their top batsman Sachin Tendulkar who does not play internationally in the shortest version.
That optimism proved wishful thinking, while the IPL is played on flat wickets with big-hitting batsmen facing largely mediocre bowlers, at the international level it is a very different game.
In Barbados, India succumbed to the pace bowling of Australia and West Indies on a bouncy surface with the short ball being an old weakness of Indian players and one that Dhoni had little remedy for.
“I think most of us have that problem we come from a place where we don’t have bowlers bowling 145-150 (kph) plus and we don’t have wickets that bounce a lot.
“We are good players of spin bowling and that’s our strength. You shouldn’t be that ashamed of saying we don’t play short pitched bowling that well, especially in a format like this where you have 20 overs and you have to play your shots.
“I think we can always improve, but if we have a problem, we have a problem.”
Dhoni was similarly fatalistic when asked to analyse where his team had gone wrong in the Caribbean.
“We are not performing to our potential that’s for sure, apart from that I can’t really say much, we certainly didn’t come here to loss games that’s for certain.
“We gave 100 percent. At the end of the day we are the losing side, nothing much can be done because this is the best 15 you can get in India when it comes to the format.
“The boys have given what they can, they are practicing very well, preparing very well at the end of the day if you are outplayed and the opposition plays really well there is nothing much you can really do.” |
Format experience fails to save India
9:54 AM | 
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Format experience fails to save India
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