Dhoni wishes he had ‘Sholay coin’

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Sydney, Feb. 24: Having lost the tosses consistently in the CB Series, Mahendra Singh Dhoni wishes he had a 'Sholay coin' that would get him to use the advantage of making the decision to bat or bowl.

Australia won the toss, batted and piled a huge total that proved a bit tough for the Blues. Looking at the next match, Dhoni said: "I hope to win the toss, that's an area of concern. I wish I had a coin from the Sholay movie where its heads both sides. Sri Lanka are a tricky opponent."

Despite Sunday's defeat, Dhoni was all praise for the youngsters in the team. "You need characters in the team who are playing for the team and not themselves. They are not looking for their 50s and centuries, which is very important. If we have a bunch of 16 players like that we will win more matches for sure," he said. Excerpts:

On the game: Without any significant partnerships among the top batsmen we managed to get close to 300 runs. When Gautam and Robin were batting we thought we had a chance. But it got difficult as Gautam got out. Still, Irfan batted well and Bhajji got a couple of boundaries. I think we were fortunate enough to make it a close match because we could have easily been bundled out for 200 odd runs.

On the batting: The seniors can contribute more. Specially if you see the matches we have played till now. Gautam is one batsman who has been consistent. Rohit has done well in patches and I've scored a few runs. If you look at the first five batsmen if they can contribute and put up significant partnerships among them then the lower order, me coming at five or six and Uthappa after me can really go after the bowlers. But it's very important to get the initial partnerships going.

If Viru, Sachin and Yuvraj do well, it gets easier for the batsmen to follow. But it hasn't been the story till now. We have a very important game against Sri Lanka we'd like to win that game and get into the finals rather than wait for the Sri Lanka vs Australia game.

On Sachin and Sehwag's forms: They are getting out to good balls. You cannot really do much about it. It's not like they are getting out to some rash shots or they are not taking up the responsibility. It's very important to go in with the right approach. Everything is not in your control.

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