Injuries and batting failures hit India hard says Dhoni

Thursday, 4 August 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

NOTTINGHAM, England (Reuters) : India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni blamed the absence of key players and batting failures for the team’s latest heavy defeat to England at Trent Bridge on Monday.

The Indians, who lost by 319 runs and who are now 2-0 down in the four-match series, looked far from the world’s number one-ranked team in the tests at Lord’s and Trent Bridge.

England will take over at the top of the world rankings for the first time if they win the series by a two-test margin.

India have missed their best opening batsman Virender Sehwag in both tests because of a shoulder injury, their senior pace bowler Zaheer Khan was injured on day one at Lord’s and regular opener Gautam Gambhir missed the second test with a bruised arm, forcing a batting order reshuffle.

In addition, their experienced spinner Harbhajan Singh sustained a stomach injury in Nottingham, restricting his workload and effectiveness. “It has been tough because of the circumstances,” Dhoni told reporters. “Missing Zaheer on the first day of a test, Harbhajan in the second test, not having our specialist opener also. “It was tough conditions out there, it’s a tough place for openers to score runs, it doesn’t come easy, but as an international side you look forward to such experiences, it’s been a learning curve for us.” Dhoni said Gambhir would return for the third test at Edgbaston on Aug. 10, while Zaheer was practising his bowling after the match finished. Sehwag arrives in England on Tuesday and could face Northamptonshire in a two-day match from Friday. The Indian skipper was pleased with the way his raw pace attack of Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth sustained their effort in Nottingham. He said he felt the team’s failures were more to do with the batsmen failing to reach 300 in the series.

“It’s important to put runs on the board and we are slightly lacking that,” Dhoni said. “Right from the last series we played we haven’t scored consistently so that’s also a bit of a concern.

“We have also lost one of our openers (Gambhir) so Rahul had to open and Laxman had to bat at number three (instead of five).”England skipper Andrew Strauss’s problems are minor in comparison. Even though the severity of batsman Jonathan Trott’s shoulder injury is yet to be known, the team’s bench strength has been a bonus. Fast bowler Chris Tremlett was ruled out for this match with a hamstring problem but his replacement Tim Bresnan scored 90 and claimed a test best five for 48 on the final day at Trent Bridge. “I thought it was an outstanding performance from the guys,” Strauss said. “We had to dig very deep, we were twice in a position where India looked very much like favourites to win the game and we dragged it round.“There were some outstanding individual performances. One of the real measures of a good side is whether they are able to come back from difficult circumstances. Most sides are pretty good when they’ve got everything their own way.

“But in the last two tests guys have put their hands up and delivered when it matters.

It fills me with lots of confidence for the future that we can go on and become a better side.”