Chennai: The under-fire Indian Test team got Friday the backing of former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who said there are quite a few positives to pick despite the drubbing handed out by South Africa – the prominent one being the bowlers’ performance. India are currently 0-2 down in the series with the third and final Test scheduled to start January 24 at Johannesburg.
“I would say look at the positives. To win a Test match you need 20 wickets and we have taken 20 wickets. If you can’t take 20 wickets, what is the next thing? You look to draw a Test match,” Dhoni said at a press conference here. “You can only draw a Test match by giving less runs and by scoring runs,” he added.
Dhoni said the fact that Indian bowlers are taking 20 wickets in a match is a sign that the side are never too far from a win. “If you are not able to get 20 wickets, you can’t win a Test match irrespective of whether you are playing in India or you are playing outside. But that is the big positive. We are taking 20 wickets,” he asserted. “This means we are always in a position to win a Test match. Once you start scoring runs, you are there.”
The Jharkhand stumper stated that he was happy to be back at the franchise. “I never thought of playing for any other franchise other than Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Chennai is my second home. Fans here have adopted me as one of their own,” Dhoni pointed out. “A lot of people approached me, I can tell you that. But I can’t think of not coming back to CSK. This is a special place. So that thought of being in any other franchise was never a question,” he added.
The CSK captain also stated that the franchise would be aiming to get Ravichandran Ashwin back in the fold in the upcoming IPL players’ auction. Ashwin is back in auction pool after CSK retained Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja.
“As I have said it is always a tough call whom to retain or not. With Ashwin, you know we had done the same thing in the past. We will definitely go for him (Ashwin) in the auction as he is a local lad, we want a lot of local players to be part of CSK,” Dhoni informed.
“As of now, it is tough to say, we will get him or him or not. Ashwin will come first in the auction for us. But we will have to wait and watch. We will definitely try to get him,” Dhoni added.
press trust of india