Cricket

Mendis not a permanent threat: Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain has said that though Ajantha Mendis is an unusual bowler in comparison to Muttiah Muralitharan, he will cease to be a permanent threat to the Indian batsmen, sooner or later.

“With time batsmen will get used to playing him. Even Murali some seven-eight years back was really difficult,” Dhoni said. “Everybody was talking about him. With time I think it will get a bit easier. Mendis is a bit more unusual than Murali. I have not seen any bowler like this.”

“Mendis is difficult to pick because he is a very different bowler. Even if you pick him up, by the time you realise what the ball is it gets very late to play a big shot. But it is not only about playing. You have to rotate the strike because you don’t want a bowler to end up ten overs for 20 runs.

“But if you see the way he has played the two games against us, even in the Asia Cup, he gave away just ten runs in six or eight overs. You need to take a few from him and a few from Murali and look to attack the others. You’ve got to have something on the board.”

Dhoni emphasised that a good start was essential for his side to get to a substantial total. “We were off to a good start in the Asia Cup but then we lost quick wickets,” Dhoni said. “After that when you are playing Mendis it’s difficult. It gets a bit tough when you have to rotate the strike and also save the wicket if the bowler is as unusual as Mendis.

“Once you get used to the variations then it gets easy for the batsmen. The only option right now is to play more and more of him and that’s the only way of getting better. You can see a thousand videos but it doesn’t matter until you go out there and play him off the track from 20 yards.”

Tags: ajantha mendis, dhoni, Idea Cup 2008, India, MS Dhoni, murali, sri lanka