 India hoping to get rid of batting woes in second ODI
19th Aug 2008 15:01 IST
Agencies
Jolted by the humiliating defeat in the series opener, India may opt to shuffle their struggling batting line-up as they go into the second one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on Wednesday hoping to find a way to regain their winning touch.
After losing the Test series, the Indians made a poor start to the one-dayers by losing the first game in Dambulla by eight wickets and it will need a far more inspiring performance by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men to reverse their fortunes.
The absence of Virender Sehwag, who has been ruled out of the series because of an injury, has come as a big blow for the Indians who have been forced to have a re-look at the batting order.
The Indian think tank is now toying with the idea of shuffling the batting order for the crucial second game of the five-match series.
But with an average age of around 24 years, Dhoni and his men will have to move mountains to get a stranglehold of the on-going series and this may force the skipper to move himself and other seniors up the batting order.
However, Dhoni will be missing the firepower of his most experienced batsman Sehwag who can really be destructive on his day.
In that scenario, vice-captain Yuvraj Singh, who hit an explosive 172 in the lone practice match before the start of the ODI series, opener Gautam Gambhir and Dhoni himself will have to take the responsibility on their shoulders to guide the relatively junior batsmen of the team.
continued.. |
