India cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni feels that the break his side got, after they failed to qualify for the tri-series final in Perth, helped them get their batteries recharged for the Cricket World Cup, and has insisted that only time would tell.
India's World Cup campaign would get underway with the high-octane clash against Pakistan on February 15. The Indian squad has been in Australia for two months but hasn't yet won a competitive match, losing the four-Test series 2-0 and losing every game it played in the limited-overs tri-series against Australia and England.
The lingering question is whether India is worn-out by the long summer in Australia ahead of the World Cup, or whether it has been a good preparation for the tournament. Dhoni said that there's cooked and overcooked, and especially if one does barbecues one would understand that, The Dawn reported.
The skipper said that when they went and played the Champions Trophy, they were in a similar situation to this, adding that the guys stepped up and that is important in the ICC tournaments.
And the break following India's failure to reach the tri-series final would have definitely helped them recharge their batteries, claimed Dhoni. However, he insisted that only time would tell.
With India's opening game against Pakistan, Dhoni has tried to play down the significance of the scarcity of their recent clashes, as Pakistan cannot host international cricket for security reasons.
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Dhoni said that a lot of people have a lot of views about it, adding that how he personally takes it, is that it's similar to playing Australia, Sri Lanka or any other Test playing nation. He claimed that the moment one starts thinking about a traditional rivalry and all of that they are just adding pressure to themselves.
Dhoni claimed that also what they have successfully done in the last three to four years, is that they have mellowed down the things that apart from cricket happen on the field, insisting that they have minimized the verbal things that often happen between the cricketers.