For the record, India have bowled out each of their opponents in the five games played so far in the World Cup. The bowlers have worked well by either restricting them to a sizeable total or backing up the good efforts by the batsmen. Not surprisingly, the Indian captain is a happy man. Reflecting on the piece of statistic, MS Dhoni, “It is a good stat to have which means the bowlers are doing a great job for us. Not just the pacers, the spinners too have stepped up. This is a happy unit.”
Happy they must be.
India restricted Ireland to just 259 after they had got off to a blistering start with 300 looking possible at one point. But Dhoni chopped and changed his bowlers, used the spinners at the right time and even got in part-timer Suresh Raina to bowl ten overs of spin after Umesh Yadav had taken a beating. The highlight though was R Ashwin, who picked up two wickets with an outstanding economy of under four. The captain reserved special praise for the off-spinner.
”Ashwin is someone I have always loved to have in my side. I have always pushed him to bowl in the power plays and difficult situations. He is really confident about his bowling. He understands his bowling well. I believe in the last few foreign tours he has learnt how to bowl in these conditions. The good thing with him is he keeps improving himself. Every time he is part of the series, he sees the challenges and accordingly improves. It is good to see him bowl really well,” the captain beamed.
Dhoni was also impressed with the way his bowlers had stuck to the plans and executed them well. “They're bowling according to the plans and are aware of bowling according to the field which is reflecting in our performance so far,” he said.
“What the bowlers are doing is something that I have not seen for a long time, particularly with the Indian team setup. Earlier you kept telling them to bowl at one line consistently but you wouldn’t see that consistency which is seen now. Hopefully, even after the World Cup campaign when we comeback to play outside the sub-continent, they have these memories in their head of sticking to good lines and lengths. If they do that, it will change a lot of things for us.”
Reflecting on how exactly this bowling unit has managed to stick to the right line and lengths consistently, Dhoni gave an interesting perspective. “When you try new things, it is important that the result goes in your favour. If you succeed in the new approach then you tend to get inclined towards executing those kinds of plans. We see a lot of times batsmen making changes in the nets and are comfortable. But if they go into the match and miss a few then they go back to their own basics.
“That transformation needs time, which has happened with our bowling. The learning in the tri-series was a contribution towards the bowlers hitting the right line and lengths. When it worked in their favour it triggered a spark. Hope this will be in their minds in the series to come.”
