Sydney, Feb 25 : Faced with a do-or-die situation, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all set to field his three regular openers rather than experiment with a pinch hitter at the top of the order in tomorrow's crucial tri-series One-dayer against Australia here.
“We have three genuine, proper openers. I see no good reason why I should sent in a pinch-hitter.
All three score at a brisk pace, they are good at hitting boundaries as well as in taking singles.
“There is no requirement of a pinch hitter when all three are playing,” said Dhoni, indicating the rotation policy is as good as over for the rest of the tournament.
With only two more league matches to go, a defeat for India would leave them just a solitary match against Sri Lanka and a must-win with a bonus point situation.
Citing an example of Mahela Jayawardene to show Sri Lanka's resurgence in the tournament as they have now won their last three matches with the captain opening and contributing with the bat with scores of 61, 45 and 85, Dhoni said, “The game has changed slightly with two new balls, one from each end. If the top order can spend more time and we have wickets in hands later, we could look to accelerate.
“That should be the mantra as of now. It's not been great going for us so far. Our strength is different from Sri Lanka and Australia. Sticking to your own strength is really
important.
It's important to keep learning from each and every game, especially in the areas where we have to improve as a side. It's important we don't repeat the mistakes we have been making as a team. It would help us do well.”
