India’s One Day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday admitted that Indian team was desperately short of a decent strike bowler capable of delivering well and being able to take wickets particularly at the death overs.
He told reporters, “We have not being able to get a good strike bowler. We are lacking in consistency in terms of death bowling. I think it is something which is important to sit and analyse upon. We have been struggling with it for quite some time. We have tried all our option.”
“It was a very good batting wicket. There was very less turn for spinners. You rarely see bowler going for so much runs. I will have a word with the bowlers now,” he said.
Earlier today, powered by centuries each from Faf du Plessis (133), AB de Villiers (119) and Quinton de Kock (109), the visitors out up a huge score of 438/4 in 50 overs and bowled out a spiritless India for 224 in 26 overs to register a mammoth 214-run win at the Wankhede Stadium.
Dhoni said that Sunday’s fielding effort by his team was the worst he had seen in ODIs.
“This is the worst fielding effort I have ever seen. 439 runs to chase are very difficult. Coming into bat with such a huge target really puts pressure. They batted really well. We wanted to give it a try and go for the win but it was a too big a total to chase,” he said.
“We are not short of motivation. We are struggling with a seaming all-rounder. Our lower order batting is on the lighter side when it comes to facing top quality pace bowlers,” he said.
In the five-match ODI series, Dhoni tested his players by changing the batting order often. “We have changed the batting line-up to see who fits in well in the batting slot. We are looking for the solution and I hope we will come up with a solution soon.”
“I think the spinners fought hard throughout the series. We know that on this wicket, if it is on the flatter side, it is easy to hit sixes. Overall, nothing worked for us. This game was completely taken away from us. It happens in cricket,” he said.