After an embarrassing T20 series defeat against South Africa, India’s limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that one bad performance per year serves him a timely reminder that one should not use too much of his brain in the shortest format.
On and off, we have seen performances like these in the T20s. Every year, we at least have one performance, where we are not up to the mark. Maybe this is that performance and we will play freely in the next games.
— MS Dhoni
Although said in a lighter vein, Dhoni did say that not playing freely and over-thinking can complicate matters in T20 cricket.
I personally feel that I used too much of my brain in this format. It’s very important I keep myself free and go and play my strokes. Depending on that I play a bit slow initially. In this format, I believe I should play the big shots from the word go irrespective of whatever the scenario is because that’s what this format is all about.
Asked about batting higher up the order, Dhoni said:
A lot of time when I go into bat, be it the 16th or 17th over or in the fourth or fifth overs when wickets have fallen down, I have the tendency of like let’s go to 130, that will be good score. One of the reasons, why I want to bat up the order is that somebody else takes the responsibility of batting lower down the order, say No 6 which is a very crucial position.
“Unless they are exposed, you cannot tell who is good at it. We have played a lot of cricket and lot of guys have not been successful at No 6. We have seen them perform well at the top of the order but have struggled lower down. Someone has to take the responsibility of batting down. You need to have it in your back-up plan in the years to come,” Dhoni said.
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