MS Dhoni praises Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh

Ashish Nehra is 36 and Yuvraj Singh 34 but the opening match in Mirpur showed how valuable the two veterans are to India’s T20 plans. Nehra, who was out of the squad after the 2011 World Cup, took three for 23 while Yuvraj made only 15 but very good runs, according to captain Dhoni.

Dhoni praised Nehra for his disciplined routine and hoped the Delhi pacer would remain fit till the end of the World T20.  Dhoni was also impressed with 34-year-old  Yuvraj’s commitment though he made only 15 against Bangladesh. “I think his approach was good. All of a sudden, you don’t want to go out there thinking that you want to do all those things. What’s important is to play deliveries according to its merit. “He (Yuvraj)  played a fabulous shot through mid-off. Even if he scored 15 runs, he got confidence.  The more he plays, he will become a different player. He needs a bit of time.  “It doesn’t really matter as to how many he scores but his approach was good. Few more like this situation will help us. I am not saying we want to lose three wickets but situations like these will help him,” the skipper said. Dhoni said his role with the bat had also changed a bit in recent times as he was expected to score 20-25 runs in the 10-15 balls he normally gets to play. 

“Sometimes it’s hard. Because I am expected to score 20-25 runs in those balls, which is difficult,” he said, after India’s comfortable win over hosts Bangladesh in the opening match of the Asia Cup. Asked about his problems with back spasm, Dhoni said that it is difficult to judge just after the match as to how good or bad the condition of the back is. “The body remains warm after the match, so it might give fake signals. You can only judge the next day as to how the condition is. I was under a lot of dilemma and found it difficult to convince people that I will make sure that I go through 20 overs.

“There are still two more days before the next match (against Pakistan) and luckily we have Parthiv around.» Dhoni further said: “The way Rohit batted that was needed. It would’ve been good to win the toss. We wanted to see the kind of start and then set a target. “It was kind of 5545 with the toss. Rather than hitting the big shots straight down, it was important to cut and use such shots since they were bowling short of length.”