India's limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today said that the search is still on for a potent cricketer, who can fit into the role of a seam bowling all-rounder that will help getting the team combination right.
Dhoni spoke in the context of team's bowling combination which hinges on whether they have a quality seamer all-rounder.
"We have four spinners (Ravi Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Axar Patel) and three proper seamers (Mohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sreenath Aravind) and a seamer all-rounder (Stuart Binny)," Dhoni said at the pre-match conference.
"So it gives you that luxury of going with the right combination, depending on the scenario. Also you have to see strength of the team. Like if we go with two spinners, one of them has to be a better batsman. We don't have a seamer all-rounder, who can give us 4 overs in a T20 game or for that matter 10 overs in a 50-over game and also bat as well. So we have to keep all these factors (in mind)," said the T20 captain.
The skipper also kept cards close to his chest as to whether he would bat up the order or not. It will depend on what the situation warrants.
"I would love to. We have to see the composition of the side, who is best suited to bat at what what position. Especially in T20s, most of our players are top-order batsmen but when it comes to IPL or T20 international, they bat at different positions.
"For example, Rohit opens over here and Ajinkya Rahane who bats in the middle order, opens in IPL. So we have to see, depending on that I will decide. Most of our batsmen like to bat up the order, somebody has to bat middle and late order," he said.
Asked if Suresh Raina could take over the mantle of an ideal finisher, a job that he has performed remarkably in the earlier years, Dhoni replied in negative.
"Raina is not a finisher. We play more T20s and have more statistics from IPL than T20 Internationals. He is somebody who has batted at No 3 in most of the matches. We promoted him in 2009 and he did well. So we have to place them strategically, so that it helps the team.
