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Nottingham: Another loss, another humiliation, another grilling media session. The woes of Indian captain MS Dhoni seem to be never-ending. After the third straight loss in the Super 8 game against South Africa at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, the Indian captain looked at a loss for words.
Clearly, a man used to such heady success was finding it tough to come to terms with his team's shoddy performance.
Dhoni acknowledged, though, that the main reason for India's early ouster was their batting failure. "When you turn up on the field, you have to be always 100% and the key players have to be in form, which never really happened for us. Quite a few players were out of form, including me. That really proved crucial because it was our batting that was struggling. We are always known as a side that relies a lot on its batting. Because some of the guys were out of form, it really got tough for us," he said.
It's time for some serious introspection now for the captain and his troops before India's next big assignment on the world stage, the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.
"It's quite an unexpected performance. A lot of soul-searching needs to be done. It's not about what you can achieve. It's what you actually go out and achieve. We were not up to the mark. Our performance was never really up to international standards," Dhoni said.
Many factors are being attributed to India's poor performance, including fatigue. Although coach Gary Kirsten has attributed tiredness as the main reason for the poor show, Dhoni again seemed to refute that suggestion on Tuesday. "In a 20-over game, how tired can you be? You can work throughout the year and still play a tournament like this," he said.
Was he tired personally, as wicket keeping takes a heavy toll along with the captaincy? "I never thought I was too tired. I was going to the nets each and every day. I was doing whatever drills were given to me."
Dhoni, it might be recalled, had opted out of the Test series against Sri Lanka last August, citing fatigue after a hectic season. Surely, if he was as tired, he could have opted out of some of the warm-up games at least.
"At that time, I was not feeling like going to the nets at all. That's the time you know you are really tired. I was not even close to feeling like that. I don't know about other guys. I don't think fatigue is an appropriate reason for our defeat."
But fitness is and it could be seen that there were some players who were just not fit. "When we selected the team there were hardly a few guys who were 100% fit. Somebody had a shoulder problem, somebody an ankle problem. That really had a big impact on our fielding. I think most of the guys were not 100% fit."
Skipper booed
While the Indian public were present in large numbers in the ground even for an inconsequential game, they also booed the Indian team and its captain after the defeat. What did Dhoni, known to treat success and defeat with equanimity think about all this?
"It's not the first time it's happening to me or the Indian cricket team. Hamara toh antim sanskar bhi ho gaya tha after the 2007 World Cup (They had even conducted our last rites after the 2007 World Cup). It happened when we were playing a Test match against England (in Mumbai) too. There's no use feeling bad about it. It shows the level of expectations people have from us. If they did not boo us, we would have thought there is something unusual," he explained.
But Dhoni himself hasn't copped a lot of criticism in his immensely successful career so far. But he has got a fair bit of it in the last few weeks. How is he dealing with it?. "In four-and-a-half years, I have seen a lot. From being out of form to getting booed to crashing out of the 2007 World Cup to winning the World Twenty20, to winning the One-day series in Australia and Sri Lanka and now this. It's getting more demanding mentally. I cannot stop anyone from saying anything. It is an uncontrollable. But I am really happy to play cricket for India even if I get booed or something bad happens."
At times you have to hide things: Dhoni on Viru's injury
The mystery over Virender Sehwag's injury just refuses to die down even after India's campaign in England has ended. The media wanted to know what the levels of transparency are in the team when it comes to disclosing injuries. Dhoni finally came clear on the issue. "When the first MRI was done in India, it did not show anything. When the next MRI was done here, it showed he had a tear. At times, you cannot say everything because you want the opposition team to think of Sehwag, whether he is playing or not. I prefer announcing the team one hour before the game. At times you have to hide things."
