We need more consistency from our batsmen : Dhoni

Napier: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that his team’s failure to build partnerships after losing early wicket was the cause of the defeat against New Zealand in the first one-dayer.
Chasing 293 for victory, India lost the first ODI of the five-match series here by 24 runs despite Virat Kohli (123) scoring a superb century.
Dhoni, however, said the fact that the team got close to the target showed that the batsmen have a lot of firepower.

“At the same time, we can say that not many batsmen scored runs but we were still able to get close to 290 runs. It means that we have got plenty of firepower. We just need to apply ourselves better and it will see us through,” he said.

Four out of the top six batsmen — Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself — fell to short balls or bouncers, perhaps underlining a growing weakness in the Indian batting line-up. But the wicketkeeper-batsman was quick to negate the theory.

“One of the options is, not to play the shot but our strength has been to play shots,” he opined. “At times we will get caught because it’s a difficult shot to play. But we need to play it and master this shot because overseas you cannot allow the bowlers to dominate and cannot leave all of them.

“But we can always pick and choose when to play and when not to play this shot,” Dhoni explained.