Harare : Handed a rude shock in the opening game, the Indian youngsters will have to raise their game in the second Twenty20 International to stay afloat in the three-match series against minnows Zimbabwe, here today.
It was the first time that the young team was tested on the tour and it faltered on key moments to suffer an unexpected loss. India did not see the loss coming after a cakewalk in the ODIs, giving Zimbabwe a much needed morale boost to press for another win.
Their captain Graeme Cremer insisted that more was expected from his team, that pulled itself out of a hole with an all-round effort.
Dhoni hopes the fresh faces don’t make the same mistakes in the second game “I feel, though we lost the game – it is disappointing – it is still a learning curve for the youngsters, provided they are learning out of it. You have to take it in a serious manner because whenever you will represent the country, whenever they get a chance to be part of the proper Indian team for a consistent period of time, they will feel the pressure. That will be the time when a game like this or a tour like this will really help them ease out that pressure,” he said .
The captain himself failed to get his team over the line as India could not get eight runs off the final over with pacer Neville Madziva holding his nerve. “I felt the last ball was brilliant but that is what my job is, so maybe I am the person to finish the job. But at the same time, we kept losing wickets and what happens at that stage is that you are losing wickets and you are giving one dot ball and at the same time, the set batsman is not getting strike.
“I felt the batsmen will have to take the responsibility. The reason being, few of them, they were set, they were batting well. When you are chasing targets, you need to take it to the end and then look to play the shots. That was something that was lacking in this game,” Dhoni pointed out.
The second string squad for the tour was picked in the absence of seniors and Dhoni said the rookie players must make the most of the opportunity. The skipper said he batted at six to give others more time. “It is not for me. If I had to bat up, I could easily bat at four for this team. But what is important is for these youngsters to bat at that number because this is an opportunity for them. The only reason I am here is to understand them and at the same time guide them as to what has to be done.”
TIME- 4:30 PM
